Kaagbaan Runway
Schiphol commissioned main contract Heijmans to perform major maintenance work until 24 May on the Kaagbaan runway at the largest airport in the Netherlands.
“The Kaagbaan runway is one of Schiphol’s busiest runways”, explains project leader Derk Stolwijk. Every year it is used for 95,000 take-offs and 45,000 landings. The runway, which dates from 1960, is 3,490 m long and 45 m wide. Stolwijk is leading the extensive renovation and modernisation project which is going to last nine weeks. Various investments are intended to ensure that the runway will not need any large-scale maintenance for the coming fifteen years.
“The fact that we are performing all the work in one go means that seven hundred people are working in shifts each and every day”, Stolwijk adds. “First of all we are replacing the 20 cm thick top layer, which is equivalent to around 225,0000 m2 in total. The new asphalt has a rough anti-skid upper layer which gives the aircraft more grip.”
The sides of the runway also have to be renewed, the drainage system has to be replaced and the drainage channels improved and raised along a distance of 6 km. The result will be that the Kaagbaan runway can be used by even the heaviest aircraft.
“We are also going to achieve a significant energy saving”, explains Stolwijk. By this he means the energy saving achieved by replacing the current 1,500 lights along the runway with more energy-efficient LED lights. The advantage is not only that these new lights have a much lower wattage and consume a lot less electricity than the old ones, but also that power can be supplied using low voltage cables (26 kVA) instead of high-voltage cables (160 kVA). All of this is intended to achieve a maximum saving of 84%. However, to do this the airport does have to replace 130 km of cables and install new regulators. The total renovation of the Kaagbaan runway is costing € 45 million.
During the maintenance work Schiphol is diverting air traffic to the Aalsmeerbaan, Buitenveldertbaan and Zwanenburgbaan runways. By doing so the airport hopes to minimise inconvenience for local residents. In 2018 it will be the turn of the Polderbaan.