West runway will be closed for two weekends

Due to re-resurfacing, the entire west runway will be closed to air traffic from 10 to 13 July and 17 to 20 July.

Oslo Airport is resurfacing the west runway, a project that started 11 April. The entire project is being implemented in three stages, during which time the runway has been in use with a shorter length during two of the stages. The project is currently one week ahead of the original schedule.

“The last remaining project is paving the midsection. For that reason the west runway has to be completely closed to traffic,” says project manager Runar Botten at Oslo Airport.

“The project has gone very well so far, and we have carried around 30,000 aircraft movements on the west runway during the project period. As a result, the airport has been operating at virtually full capacity.

The west runway will be closed on Friday 10 July at 18:00 and reopen on Monday 13 July at 14.00 for paving and will be closed on Friday 17 July at 18.00 and reopen on Monday 20 July at 7:00 for work on runway lighting.

“This means that capacity at Oslo Airport will be somewhat limited, but with good planning by all parties, we believe traffic will proceed without too much disruption,” says Botten.

“The work is weather dependent and if heavy rain is forecast, we may have to move the third and final leg to the following weekend.”

Due to subsequent finishing work the west runway will have periods of night closures in August.

Norwegian record in paving
The project itself is unique in that the airport has managed to simultaneously conduct air traffic on a runway that is being resurfaced. The contractor, Veidekke, is believed to have set a Norwegian record in asphalt paving.

“During the first leg we laid 18,500 tonnes of asphalt in three days. In two shifts, a total of 140 people worked to complete the paving, and it was almost impossible to obtain asphalt in other places in Eastern Norway during this time,” says Botten.

“The asphalt plants in Sørlie and Ringsaker in Hedmark were on full stand-by and just at Sørlie, 24 asphalt trucks shuttled between the plant and the airport with one hour's drive each way. A total of 38 asphalt trucks were involved.

A total of 45,000 tonnes of asphalt will be laid in the project. Other construction work accounting for 30-40% of the cost of the project will also be carried out on the runway. The entire project has a total budget of more than NOK 150 million.