Babcock’s supply of heavy construction equipment to support the construction of an airport on the remote island of St Helena will also be deployed to build a permanent wharf on the island that will allow ships to dock alongside for the first time in St Helena’s history. The island is in the South Atlantic Ocean, 2000 km from the nearest mainland.

Project Director, Basil Read’s Jimmy Johnston, says with 60% of the airport now complete, the equipment supplied by Babcock primarily Volvo heavy construction vehicles has performed reliably, with good fuel efficiency and high productivity.  Once the airport and wharf have been completed, this heavy construction equipment, previously unobtainable on the island as a result of the challenging shipping logistics, will be available for future infrastructure development. Babcock has supplied the necessary construction equipment in batches, beginning with shipments on the RMS St Helena that included a Volvo EW140C wheeled excavator, a BL61 backhoe loader and a DD24 2.5 tonne double drum vibration compactor. Since August 2012 Basil Read’s flat deck shallow draft cargo ship, the NP Glory 4, has brought the balance of the equipment to the island. Other shipments have included a high discharge 2 tonne Winget site dumper and a hydraulically-operated, heavy-duty Winget concrete mixer.

Later shipments brought a Volvo G940B grader, as well as four colossal 70 tonne new Volvo EC700 C-Series crawler excavators and one Volvo MC115C skid steer loader. World renowned Volvo articulated dumpers were also aboard, including an A30E and brand new A40F articulated dump trucks with 30 and 40 tonne payload.  This equipment was necessary to perform more rigorous and heavy duty site work, as well as the necessary bulk excavation and rock fill at the lowest cost efficient manner. Adding to the growing Babcock/Volvo fleet on the island are an EC480 ton excavator, an EC380 excavator and four SD200DX compaction rollers, among other machines. The project began with the construction of a temporary landing facility at Rupert’s Bay to accommodate the NP Glory 4. In July 2012 the first cargo was unloaded. The ship was the first ever to unload directly onto St Helena Island. Since then the volume of material shipped to the island underscores the scale of the operation. Around 30 000 tons of cargo has been moved so far, including 20-million litres of diesel fuel, 5 000 tons of explosives, 27 000 tons of cement and pulverised fuel ash, 500 tons of sand from Namibia, more than 120 items of construction equipment, 900 containers, 1200 tons of reinforcing steel and 20 000 tons of miscellaneous cargo, including steel, piping and building materials with still more to come.

To enable the transport of equipment and material from Rupert’s Bay to Prosperous Plain where the airport site is situated, Basil Read has built a 14 km long haul road that rises more than 500 m in the first 5 km — in itself presenting an engineering challenge. Volvo equipment is being heavily deployed on the construction of the airport runway, which involves filling the so-called Dry Gut Gorge with 8-million cubic metres of blasted rock to a height of over 100 m, with a width of 750 m, creating an embankment that will form part of the runway. As of February 2014, the Dry Gut fill was 65% complete with more than 5-million cubic metres of material placed through a 24-hour operational cycle. Fill material is sourced from the site area as the landscape and hills are levelled. The Dry Gut fill will take 24 months to complete with completion scheduled for September 2014.

Work has also commenced on the 1 950 m long concrete runway, a taxiway and apron. This is due for completion in May 2015. Construction of the terminal building, combined air traffic control and fire department is progressing well and is on schedule. Installation of aerodrome ground lighting, navigational aids and air traffic control equipment will begin in August 2014 and will be completed and tested by mid-2015. Construction includes a bulk fuel installation for 6-million litres of diesel, petrol and aviation fuel in Rupert’s Valley and an airport fuel facility at the airport site.

Environmental protection is being guided by Basil Read’s Environmental Management Plan which covers flora, fauna and heritage issues In addition to these environmental considerations, Basil Read is fully supportive of the Landscape And Ecology Mitigation programme, a four year initiative that will focus on habitat restoration and landscaping, which is required as a result of the airport construction and supporting infrastructure activities.  LEMP will carry on after all construction activities have ceased and will provide alternative habitats and landscape treatments to reduce and offset the permanent direct loss of habitat and the direct and indirect impacts on the landscape that might have arisen from construction works. The airport will finally be connected to the island’s electrical, communications and roads infrastructure. All construction work and certification will be completed and ready for the first commercial flight in early 2016.