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

  • Asphalt resurfacing at Miami International Airport
    February 8, 2012
    Improvements worth US$30 million are being carried out at Miami International Airport. The work includes runway resurfacing with specialist contractors having been brought in to handle the project. This is a busy facility handling some 34 million passengers/year and the work is being carried out over a period of 454 days in all, starting in September 2009 and due to finish in December 2010. The focus of attention is the upgrade to the airport's second longest runway, 8R 26L as well as the adjoining M and N
  • Wirtgen’s cold milling solution breaks records in Sardinia
    December 9, 2016
    Three Wirtgen cold milling machines – two of type W 210 and one of type W 200i – and two Wirtgen soil stabilizers of type WR 2000 demonstrate their productivity and reliability at Alghero-Fertilia Airport in Sardinia. Located roughly 8 km northwest of the city of Alghero, Alghero-Fertilia Airport (IATA: AHO, ICAO: LIEA) is one of three commercial airports on the Italian island, along with Cagliari Elmas and Olbia. Built as a military airport in the late 1930s, Alghero-Fertilia still occasionally serve
  • Wirtgen paving technology takes off at Frankfurt
    February 27, 2017
    Time was at a premium for Wirtgen machinery when resurfacing the runway at Frankfurt/Main Airport Europe’s third largest airport, Frankfurt/Main, has new surface course on runways about every seven year, including the centre runway, the most-frequently used section.
  • Wirtgen KMA 220 passes with flying colours at Cologne/Bonn Airport
    July 25, 2018
    A Wirtgen KMA 220 produces hydraulically bound base using a mix-in-plant process for recycling at Cologne/Bonn Airport. With the mobile KMA 220 mobile cold recycling mixing plant from Wirtgen, road construction materials can be recycled or upgraded in just about any location. This avoids countless transport trips and is also sustainable and environmentally friendly. Finally, it is extremely economical, according to Wirtgen. This became clear from a job at Cologne/Bonn airport at the end of 2017. The plan