St Helena airport development

9th August 2013

By: Creamer Media Reporter

  

Font size: - +

Name and Location
St Helena airport development.

Client
British government’s Department for International Development (DFID).

Project Description
St Helena Island is located about 1 900 km from Africa, measuring 16 km by 8 km, and is one of the world’s most remote locations, with Ascension Island more than 1 000 km away.

The project involves the construction of an airport on the island. It will feature a 1 950 m high-quality concrete runway, with taxiways and an apron to cater for aircraft up to the size of an Airbus A320 and a Boeing 737-800; a rockfill embankment of about eight-million cubic metres, through which a 750-m-long reinforced concrete culvert will run; a 3 500 m2 airport terminal building and support infrastructure; air-traffic control systems; a bulk fuel installation for six-million litres of diesel and aviation fuel; a 14 km airport access road and all related logistics.

The island’s only lifeline to the outside world has been the Royal Mail Ship, the RMS St Helena, the only ship to call regularly at St Helena Island. As a community that has no internal resources or an industry to support its economy, the British government has been providing extensive financial support for the island.

The bulk of the capital is spent on maintaining and operating the RMS St Helena. It is hoped that the new airport will address some of the socioeconomic difficulties on the island and boost the prosperity of islanders through tourism and help stop the exodus of its population who is seeking work in Britain.

To assist in the completion of St Helena International Airport, Basil Read has chartered a massive Thai cargo vessel, the NP Glory 4.

The NP Glory 4 cargo vessel has been charted from NP Marine for 36 months to transport fuel, materials and plant to and from the island.

Value
The project is funded by the British government’s DFID. The Phase 1 design and construction of the airport is valued at £216-million.
The Phase 2 operation will cost £38-million.

Duration
Construction started in May 2012 and will take place over 48 months, reaching completion in 2015. After construction, the operations phase of the contract will continue in partnership with South Africa’s Lanseria Airport for a further period of ten years.

Latest Developments
The project has started, with preparations for the foundation works for the airport buildings under way.

The excavation teams have finished preparation of the site, which involved excavating 30 m down to create a platform for the buildings.

Simultaneously, the excavation teams will excavate material for the dry gut fill, but this work will be conducted outside the 200 m radius of the building site, enabling the buildings team to take over this area of Prosperous Bay Plain and start construction of the buildings.

The first building to be built will be the combined building, which will house several auxiliary functions that are required to support the airport operations such as air traffic control and rescue and fire
fighting services.

Basil Read continues to work on the construction of the access road from Ruperts Valley to Prosperous Bay Plain to the final alignment. The company is concentrating on the area between Deadwood and Millennium Forest.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Basil Read (designer, builder and operator), Worley Parsons (lead design and landside designs), Virtual Consulting (airside designs), KMH Architects and LYT Architects (architects); Atkins and WSP (independent certifiers); PRDW (marine designs); Lanseria Airport International (operations); Thales (AGL, Navaids); Southern African Institute for Environmental Assessment or SAIEA (environmental); Trotech (bulk fuel installation; BME (explosives); Ohorongo Cement (cement) and Babcock (supply and maintenance of Volvo construction equipment).

On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.

Contact Details for Project Information
Basil Read project director Jimmy Johnston, tel +27 11 418 6325 or communications manager Jenny Smith, tel +27 11 418 6466.
Babcock, tel +27 11 230 7300.
DFID, tel +44 1355 84 3132, fax +44 1355 84 4099 or email enquiry@dfid.gov.uk.
Worley Parsons, tel +27 12 745 2000 or fax +27 12 745 2001.
Virtual Consulting, tel +27 12 452 0444 or fax +27 12 452 0583.
KMH Architects, tel +27 11 447 4190, fax +27 11 447 2712 or email arch@kmh.co.za.
LYT Architects, email info@lyt.co.za.
WSP, tel +27 11 361 1300.
PRDW, tel +27 21 418 3830, fax +27 21 418 3834 or email info@prdw.co.za.
Lanseria Airport International, tel +27 11 367 0300.
SAIEA, tel +27 21 789 0251 or fax +27 21 789 0257.
Trotech, tel +27 31 764 1573 or fax +27 31 764 3353.
Ohorongo Cement, tel +264 61 248 485 or fax +264 61 247 878.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION