Rehabilitated runway reopens at Pearson Airport

TORONTO — After an eight-month rehabilitation, Runway 06L/24R, the second busiest runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport, has reopened.

The announcement was made by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), operator of Toronto Pearson International Airport.

The project is one of the largest in Pearson’s history and required careful planning and co-ordination, which began over a year-and-a-half ago.

Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, GTAA staff, local elected officials, GTAA teams responsible for the rehabilitation and representatives from Dufferin Construction and Avia NG were in attendance for a ribbon-cutting to mark the reopening.

The three-kilometre runway was first built in the 1960s. It needed to be fully reconstructed due to the wearing down of its concrete sub-structure as a result of weather, use and time.

The project extends the life of the runway by 30 years and enhances the safety of Pearson’s operations, a release reads.

The rehabilitation included several sustainability measures including:

• Crushing and reusing concrete from the original runway for the new runway;
• upgrading 1,800 incandescent lights to LED lights to help reduce Pearson’s carbon footprint and lower maintenance costs;
• constructing an onsite batch plant reduced the need to truck concrete to the rehabilitation site and reduced GHG emissions; and 
• two of only three 12-foot pavers in existence in Canada were used for the rehabilitation, helping to reduce the overall timeline of the project and associated emissions.

“This runway is more than a marvel of modern engineering, as amazing as it is,” said GTAA president and CEO Deborah Flint, in a statement. “It paves the way for the next 30 years of YYZ stimulating Canada’s economy by facilitating trade, foreign direct investment, tourism and business. This runway is more than a place where planes land and take off; it’s emblematic of a brighter future, both for Toronto Pearson and Canada through the global connections and economic activity it enables.”