News —
First airport in Europe to test new runway marking material
Oslo Airport is the first airport in Europe to test a new method of marking runways and taxiways.
An airport’s runways and taxiways consist of far more than asphalt or concrete. Among other things, the runways and taxiways have to be painted and marked with stripes and large horizontal surface signs. The pavement markings provide traffic directions for the pilots. All runways and taxiways are assigned phonetic terms, A – Alfa, B – Bravo etc. and their purpose is to make it as easy as possible for pilots to find their way from the landing strip to the gate. Upon landing, pilots are told which taxiways they are to follow, and this enables pilots who have never landed at Oslo Airport before to safely follow the directions to the gate.
Testing AirMark
Pavement markings sustain wear and tear during the winter season due to snow removal and winter operations, and each spring and summer all markings have to be repainted. When this is done, the area has to be closed to traffic, affecting traffic management at the airport.
“It's challenging to maintain pavements markings with good visibility throughout the year. When spring comes, everything should be repainted, but it is of course not practical to be everywhere at once,” explains Thomas Toftevåg, section head for ground maintenance at Oslo Airport.
To save costs and reduce resource use, Oslo Airport has decided to look at alternative methods. This autumn, the airport became the first airport in Europe to test "AirMark" products. AirMark is a pavement marking product made of thermoplastic materials. The plastic can be remolded by heating, and is said to have a lifetime that is much longer than traditional tarmac paint.
“Pavement marking has been a topic of national and international discussion, and in North America, thermoplastic is a product that has been used with good results. Denver Airport contends with a lot of winter, and they have very good experiences with AirMark,” says Toftevåg.
Oslo Airport has installed three horizontal surface signs to see whether they will stand up to the airport’s operating and climatic conditions.
“Installing the thermoplastic signs takes two to three hours per sign. This is almost the same amount of time it takes to repaint signs in the traditional way,” says Toftevåg.
“There are also additional positive factors that we look forward to testing here. Thermoplastic signs are supposed to have a life span of 8-10 years, which greatly reduces our presence on the runways and taxiways, which in turn increases the capacity of the airport. Furthermore, visibility will be good during and after the winter season, allowing us to prioritise other important tasks at the airport,” Toftevåg concludes.
FACTS
AirMark is supplied by LKF Vejmarkering A/S in Denmark and imported by A-Merking AS Norway. A-Merking has a contract to supply pavement marking at all Avinor airports.
The material used is an environmentally-friendly thermoplastic that is prefabricated and comes in large rolls.
To apply the markings, the pavement is heated with an open flame to remove all moisture. Moisture must not form during installation or the product will loosen after installation. A special primer is then applied that provides extremely good adhesion between the thermoplastic and substrate. The same primer can be used on asphalt, concrete or paving stones. The AirMark product is then rolled out on the area that is primed.
After this begins the most time-consuming part of the installation, which requires a self-propelled machine that is around 9 metres wide. As the machine emits infrared heat onto the material, the temperature underneath the burners can reach up to 1200 °C. The machine moves slowly, but surely over the AirMark product, which melts and bonds with the primer and substrate. After the entire marking has melted and cooled, the area can be reopened to air traffic.
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