Airports confront serious works required on runways

Published: 9/22/1999

In an interview with local newspaper, Komsokolets Kaspiya, the Director General of OAO Airport Astrakhan, in Southern Russia on the Caspian Sea has claimed that the airport runway, which is 2,500m long and 43m wide, is now in need of a complete overhaul, as it has had no major work undertaken on it for 20 years. The Director General estimates the cost of total refurbishment to be some Rb600m. Such a sum will be hard to find. The airport plans to undertake some interim measures, in partnership with the Moscow Institute Aeroproekt, in order to extend the runway's life by another 8-10 years, at a cost of Rb65-70m rubles. The regional administration still has to find the funding. Currently, the airport is operating satisfactorily. The runway is checked daily and airport management is reported as saying that close monitoring of the surface of the runway is improving the use of available concrete. Reconstruction work is due to start in spring 2000 and will last 3-4 months, without interrupting the operation of the airport. Similar problems have occurred at Tomsk airport in Western Siberia, which had not been subject to major overhaul for over 30 years. This spring, the condition of the runway became so poor that the airport had to be closed. The regional administration managed to raise funds for the runway overhaul and, in September 1999, an Il-86 wide body landed at the city for the first time on the new surface.

Article ID: 894