Budimex has finished the construction work on a new runway at the Katowice International Airport (KTW). The prime contractor needed 710 days, 120 thousand cubic meters of concrete and over 1 500 people to conduct the investment process.
The construction of the new runway means that the airport will be able to host larger aircrafts and to increase its number. It will allow flying machines for take-offs to any place in the world without the need to stop for refueling and to approve aircrafts with the maximum take-off weight.
The new runway is 45 meters wide and 3 200 meters long – 400 meters longer than the existing one, which will be transformed into a taxiway. The scope of works included the construction of the new runway and technical roads, alteration of the radio navigation system, telecommunication networks for radio navigation and meteorological equipment. The Upper Silesian Aviation Group, a management body of the airport, paid Budimex PLN 150 million for the execution of the works.
1097 running lights, 235 km of electric cables, 379 sewerage wells, 56 thousand tons of blacktop and mineral mixture, 421 thousand tons of chippings of different types and 9 000 kg of paint of road signs were used to erect the new runway.
The investment was carried out within the framework of the Operational Programme Infrastructure and Environment 2007-2013. The total worth of the project amounts to PLN 267 million. Half of qualified costs is covered by the European Union. Apart from the construction of the new runway, the project involved the upgrade of apron and the reconstruction of taxiways E1, E2 and D delivered in June 2013.
The new runway will be operational in the second quarter of 2015, when the certification process is finished. Only then, the former runway will be turned into a taxiway.