The Calgary International Airport Authority is currently undertaking the single largest expansion of Calgary International Airport in its history. Part of that expansion is the airport’s $620 million runway development program, which includes a new 14,000-foot runway — the longest in Canada — an aircraft parking apron, taxiways, a central de-icing facility and other associated infrastructure. All told, the runway expansion represents more than a million square metres of paving.
The construction management contract is being undertaken under a joint venture consisting of PCL Construction Management Inc., Parsons Canada Ltd. and Dufferin Construction Company. Dufferin will be handling the paving portion of the contract as part of an ‘own forces’ arrangement.
The work commenced in April 2011 and site preparation is well underway, says Peter Rudolf, director, airfield development with the authority. He notes that the distinction of building Canada’s longest runway doesn’t steal anybody’s thunder. The current record is already held by Calgary International with a 12,675-foot runway that was first constructed in the 1940s and gradually lengthened over the last half-century.
The need for longer runways, however, isn’t remotely related to bragging rights, but instead to the airport’s elevation. North America’s longest runway is located at mile-high Denver International Airport and measures 16,000 feet long.
“The higher the elevation, the thinner the air and the longer the distance the airplane requires to pick up speed for take-off,” says Rudolf.
“Longer runways will provide an incentive for the world’s heaviest commercial aircraft to make Calgary a destination.”
Currently, the heaviest commercial aircraft are the new generation of double-deck Airbus A380s, in excess of 1.3 million lbs. gross weight.
“We have none landing her yet,” he says. “But with the new runway and all of the work being done on the entire airport campus, including the new terminal, we believe the airport will be more attractive to these sorts of flights.”
The new runway will measure 14,000 feet long by 200 feet wide and run parallel to the airport’s other north-south runways. Plans for the runway were initiated in the 1970s with the land reserved and airport zoning secured for the project at that time. City planning has likewise already recognized height and land use restrictions in anticipation of the project.
Rough grading of the site was carried out by North American Rock & Dirt Inc. (Broda Construction Group). Excavation work in preparation for construction involves the removal of 7.5 million cubic metres of earth, now almost complete.
“The overall structure of the runway is 46 inches deep,” says Rudolf. “That includes a surface course of 18 inches of Portland cement, and 27 inches of gravel and granular sub-base, including eight inches of cement-stabilized base, a lean concrete mix that provides a solid surface for the pavement structure and adds to its strength.”
All told, the runway project will require 525,000 cubic metres of granular material and 260,000 cubic metres of concrete.
An added wrinkle; the City of Calgary is simultaneously constructing a 600-metre tunnel underneath the new runway as part of the extension and upgrading of the city’s Airport Trail route.
Although the goal of the runway is to provide as flat a surface as possible, the completed runway will gently conform to the contours of the landscape.
Rudolf notes that the massive excavation and paving project is only part of the construction story. “The runway will require extensive utility support, including navigational aids, duct systems, electrical systems and conduits, and more than 5,000 runway and taxi-way lights,” he says.
The runway is scheduled to open to air traffic in May 2014.
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