A joint venture of Irish firm Roadbridge and Spanish infrastructure company FCC Construcción (FCC) has secured a contract for the construction of a new runway at Dublin Airport.
The design-build contract, awarded by the Dublin Airport Authority (daa), will involve the construction of new 3.1km North Runway at the airport.
It will also include the construction of 306,000 square metres of new runway and taxiways, and 6km of new internal airport roads, as well as installation of new drainage and pollution controls, 7.5km of electrical cable, and more than 2,000 new runway and taxiway lights.
Mobilisation and preparatory site works will commence shortly, and ground works will begin in January. Construction on the new runway is due to be completed in early 2021
To be located about 1.6km north of Dublin Airport’s current main runway, the new runway will be entirely constructed on land owned by the airport.
Developing a new runway at Dublin Airport is a key part of the Government’s National Aviation Policy, as it will allow the airport to develop its hub business and enable airlines to offer connectivity to more destinations.
The project will create about 300 jobs during its construction phase, while the commissioning phase of the runway project will also create additional employment both onsite and offsite.
The airport authority stated that the new runway will be built at no cost to the state and will support the creation of 31,200 new Irish jobs and €2.2 billion in additional economic activity by 2043.
daa chief executive Dalton Philips said: “We are delighted to award this key contract to Roadbridge FCC and to move to the next phase of our plans to deliver the new North Runway.
“North Runway is an essential project for Ireland, as it will position the country for future economic growth for many decades to come. North Runway isn’t Dublin’s new runway; it is Ireland’s new runway and it will boost the performance of Irish tourism, trade and foreign direct investment in a post-Brexit world.”
FCC Construcción’s UK & Ireland Director Miguel Ángel Mayor said: “We have been operating successfully in Ireland for many years and also have significant experience of runway construction both in Europe and South America, having built more than 4.5 million square metres of airport runways.”
