Infrastructure

La Mercy airport 'on track' for 2010

3 September 2008

Construction at the new international airport at La Mercy, to the north of Durban, is making good progress since work began a year ago, the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) says, with the airport scheduled for completion by the first quarter of 2010.

With the terminal building construction generally on programme, the slabbing and concrete pouring of the arrivals and departure levels have been completed in June. The concrete pours of the airside corridor on the arrivals and departure levels have also been completed.

The construction of the basement surface beds of the multi storey park are well on track with the pile caps, ground beam, columns and shafts almost 80% completed. The steelwork for the control tower has been completed together with the steel staircase and foundation work on the tower.

"While the construction is underway the professional teams are currently finalising the structural design including constant consultations with the design teams, architects and service providers in terms of building finishes, signage, way finding systems and lighting," read a company statement issued last week.

The construction of the 3.7km runway and associated taxiways is progressing well with cable ducts details across the runways are in the process of being set out. The designs for the Alpha, Bravo and Charlie aprons have been completed together with 75% of the bulk earth works to the alpha taxiway.

"At this stage 7 out of the 10 taxiways have been cleared and grubbed of all topsoil," Acsa says.

There are over 100 park homes which provide office and operational space for over 2 300 contractors, subcontractors and service providers, is a hive of activity on a daily basis at the site.

2010 deadline

The design team involved with the construction of the cargo facility recently visited Dubai and Frankfurt to engage in a design workshop to ensure the facility at the La Mercy site is built to specifications and conforms to the requirements to meet the deadline of 2010.

The team is currently looking at the office layout and design which will be further consulted with Air Traffic and Navigation Services before it is finally signed off. The slab of the first floor of the fire and rescue building has been cast, with the construction of the drainage and training facility about to commence.

Acsa project manager Sean van der Valk added that teams were concurrently finalising some of the specialist areas, which include electrics, IT systems, cargo handling design, baggage handling systems and air bridge design.

"These associated services are crucial to the delivery of the airport - that is essentially why we are running most of the construction phases and specialist areas in tandem," he said.

"This will assist us to synchronise the various critical path areas with design and development of the entire project."

SAinfo reporter