New surface for Dubai’s busy airport

Dubai’s busy international airport is now benefiting from new runway and taxiway areas that will help boost capacity. The upgrades are much needed as the airport is one of the world’s busiest in terms of international flights. Data from the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) says that in 2013, air passenger traffic worldwide topped 3.1 billion, and demand is expected to continue to grow. The combination of more flights and growing numbers of larger and more sophisticated aircraft like the A
January 6, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Dubai’s international airport now has new runway surfaces with bitumen having been supplied by Shell Bitumen

Dubai’s busy international airport is now benefiting from new runway and taxiway areas that will help boost capacity. The upgrades are much needed as the airport is one of the world’s busiest in terms of international flights.

Data from the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) says that in 2013, air passenger traffic worldwide topped 3.1 billion, and demand is expected to continue to grow.

The combination of more flights and growing numbers of larger and more sophisticated aircraft like the Airbus A380 means that the world’s busiest international airports are having to redevelop their runways and taxiways. The Airbus A380 weighs close to 400tonnes and landings of this huge aircraft can place enormous stresses on runway structures.

As a result, special techniques and materials are required to build the runways to ensure that they can cope with the immense engineering loads exerted.

When Dubai International Airport required its two runways to be upgraded and resurfaced in May 2014, 763 Shell Bitumen was approached by contractor Al Naboodah Construction Group to provide special bitumen solutions for this logistically challenging project. The company was able to provide special bitumen technologies to meet the demands of the project. In the past, Shell Bitumen has provide materials for use on other major airports, including Heathrow in the UK, Charles de Gaulle in France, Schiphol in the Netherlands, HKIA in Hong Kong, Changi in Singapore, KLIA in Malaysia, Frankfurt in Germany and Suvarnabhumi in Thailand.

Asphalt milling, paving & compaction Materials

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Game-changing ideas that deliver daily life and continue to evolve
    December 14, 2016
    As World Highways celebrates its 25-year anniversary this month, we thought that it would be a good moment to take a step back and look at the exciting times we live and work in, and pick out a few of the game-changing new products, technologies and services that have brought about so much innovation in our industry over the past quarter of a century. Where will these new ways of thinking and working take us next? The global highways market has been transformed in the lifetime of World Highways by high-v
    Read More
  • Nigeria’s Eko Atlantic project: a city on the sea
    September 27, 2013
    Imagine a megapolis rising, Atlantis-like, from the sea. An urban development similar in size to New York’s Manhattan that boasts thriving business and residential districts to help transform not just a city but an entire country. It sounds like the stuff of science fiction. But the Eko Atlantic project in Lagos, Nigeria, is real and has become one of the most dazzling and most discussed construction developments in the entire world. One hundred years ago, the area of land on which the new city will be bu
    Read More
  • Out of sight
    July 16, 2012
    With traffic volumes increasing around the world, many existing road links will need to be upgraded or replaced in coming years The need for new road tunnels is particularly intense in many dense urban areas, due to environmental requirements that mean new road links will have to be installed underground. However, improving existing road tunnel links is providing a very large part of the business for this specialised construction segment at present.
    Read More
  • Tarmac goes low-carbon on UK’s A64
    December 20, 2024
    The trial was delivered on a 2.4km section of England’s A64 strategic highway, the eastbound carriageway at junction 44 near the town of Bramham in North Yorkshire county.
    Read More

Highlighted Content