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Wellington Airport started work on Sunday evening on innovative new runway safety zones.
The engineered materials arresting system uses energy absorbing blocks to provide an additional safety measure at each end of the airport runway.
The first phase of the project is to prepare the runway for installation. This will involve cutting through sections of the current runway to install ducting so that lighting can be shifted, and preparing to realign some of the runway entry and exit points.
The second phase of the project is the physical installation of the EMAS blocks which will begin later this year. The entire project is due to be complete by the end of the year.
Wellington Airport chief executive Matt Clarke says the project is a great example of innovation and collaboration in action.
“EMAS has been installed at 86 airports around the world but mostly added as additional space at the end of runways.
“Given our site constraints in Wellington, we’ve worked with our industry stakeholders to design a solution which incorporates EMAS into our existing safety areas – enhancing both the safety performance and operating capability of the runway.
“We’re grateful to many people for their support in making this possible, including airlines, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Airline Pilots Association.”
Most of the work will be carried out at night to avoid disrupting regular flight operations.
Downer is the construction partner and a team of up to 70 people will be working each night.
The area at each end of the runway will be around 90 metres long, made up of individual EMAS blocks of 1.2 square metres.
Wellington Airport will be the second airport in Australasia to install EMAS, following Queenstown Airport who completed works last month.
