Skip to main content

Helsinki Airport is benefiting from a new runway surface

Finland’s main international airport, serving the capital Helsinki, is now benefiting from a runway resurfacing project. The rehabilitation work has been needed for one of the airport’s three runways due to a number of age-related defects. Helsinki Airport processes some 17 million passengers/year and due to a combination of the often severe winter weather and the heavy aircraft traffic, the runway condition was not of the standard required. Resurfacing work was scheduled by FINAVIA, with a budget of some
February 23, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
Finnish contractor Lemminkäinen used three W 220 large Wirtgen milling machines for the job
Finland’s main international airport, serving the capital Helsinki, is now benefiting from a runway resurfacing project. The rehabilitation work has been needed for one of the airport’s three runways due to a number of age-related defects. Helsinki Airport processes some 17 million passengers/year and due to a combination of the often severe winter weather and the heavy aircraft traffic, the runway condition was not of the standard required.

Resurfacing work was scheduled by 6704 FINAVIA, with a budget of some €11 million, while the total area to be rehabilitated 121,000m². The runway rebuild work was planned in stages, so as to mill off 250mm of asphalt from the runway surface, but with this work being handled in three passes. This method was required in order to separate the reclaimed material into different grades. The first stage of the planning job was to remove a 100mm layer, with a second stage milling away a 50mm asphalt layer, followed by the third phase to remove the final 100mm thickness.

The work was carried out by the Finnish contractor 3064 Lemminkäinen, which has a fleet of 2395 Wirtgen milling machines. The firm used three W 220 large milling machines for the job, allowing it to remove the layers within the tight timeframe required.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • A new runway surface for a major airport in Indonesia
    August 12, 2020
    Major rebuilding work has been carried out at Minangkabau International Airport (PDG), while the New Yogyakarta International Airport (NYIA) has been built in Indonesia.
  • Rebuilding the busy Frankfurt Airport in Germany
    September 12, 2017
    Handling up to 450 take-offs/day, Runway West is Frankfurt Airport’s busiest runway. Over 50% of the aircraft taking off from the airport uses Runway West, and a point worth noting is that this German airport is one of the busiest in Europe. In 2016, Frankfurt Airport handled nearly 61 million passengers, surpassed by Schiphol in Amsterdam and Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Europe’s third and second busiest airports respectively. Meanwhile London’s Heathrow remained Europe’s busiest airport
  • Rebuilding the busy Frankfurt Airport in Germany
    September 12, 2017
    Handling up to 450 take-offs/day, Runway West is Frankfurt Airport’s busiest runway. Over 50% of the aircraft taking off from the airport uses Runway West, and a point worth noting is that this German airport is one of the busiest in Europe. In 2016, Frankfurt Airport handled nearly 61 million passengers, surpassed by Schiphol in Amsterdam and Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Europe’s third and second busiest airports respectively. Meanwhile London’s Heathrow remained Europe’s busiest airport
  • Wirtgen Group machines delivering new runway for German airbase
    October 26, 2016
    Machines from the Wirtgen Group are carrying out an important reconstruction job for the surface course at Büchel Air Base. Road machinery from Hamm, Vögele and Wirtgen as well as asphalt plants from Benninghoven have been carrying out the work, delivering a new runway within a tight timeframe. To achieve this, the work had to be planned well in advance, with the contractors organising the logistics and their personnel accordingly.