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

  • Revamped international airport for Tunisia
    March 2, 2015
    Carthage International airport upgrade – Mike Woof writes. Improvement works are being carried out at one of Tunisia’s major airports in a move aimed at improving capacity. A key component of the work is the upgrading of the runways and taxiways at Tunis Carthage International Airport (TCIA), allowing the facility to handle larger aircraft as well as higher volumes of air traffic. The work is being carried out by ETEP, which is building the new infrastructure to the latest international standards for runway
  • Finnish airport paving contract
    October 12, 2012
    The Finnish contractor Lemminkäinen is currently working on a paving contract for Finavia, the company which maintains Finland's airports. The contract includes paving milling, as well as paving work for runway 3 and taxiways at Helsinki- Vantaa airport. Lemminkäinen began its operations on the €20 million paving contract in April 2012 and the work is expected to end in the autumn of 2014. Helsinki-Vantaa Airport is an important traffic hub for Finland, as well as for the region, with around 15 million pass
  • Dual layer, hot to hot paving at German airport
    August 18, 2015
    An airport in Germany has seen the use of very innovative asphalt paving techniques, with the use of dual-layer, hot-to-hot working. The method was used to meet a very tight schedule for the runway rebuilding work, while also delivering the high quality required. Two InLine Pave trains from Vögele were used at Rostock-Laage Airport to lay a new surface and binder course. The operation was innovative as the process used both hot-to-hot, echelon paving as well as dual layer, hot-on-hot working. Using this
  • Hot-to-hot paving upgrades Bremen City Airport runway
    September 30, 2013
    A new high quality runway surface has been laid at Bremen City Airport. This has provided a much-needed replacement at the airport as the old runway was laid over 20 years ago and was suffering from cracking and potholes. Laying the new surface required the airport to be closed, with the work having to be carried out in a tight time schedule. Contractor Heitkamp Erd- und Straßenbau was brought in to carry out the work as the firm had experience in runway rehabilitation projects having carried out pavemen