Reconstruction of the Runway of Kaunas Airport

During the reconstruction the 45-metre wide 1.911 km-long runway was renewed. The reconstruction was carried out at night, from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m., working in 5-6 hour shifts without closing airport operations in a daytime. The works were carried out by a team of 60 workers using 20 pieces of special machinery and 20 dump trucks. First of all, the old asphalt pavement was milled out and the proper grades of runway slope were formed. The longitudinal gradient connecting the old and the new pavement is especially important for safe operation of the runway. The cross-fall was provided with a 1.4% angle to ensure water discharge and to prevent ice formation at sub-zero temperatures as this is especially dangerous for the taking-off and landing aircrafts. When laying pavement the workers succeeded to renew a section of 250 metres of the runway per a shift. It took 3 hours every night to lay one asphalt concrete layer from 1.500 tonnes of asphalt concrete mix on average. In total, three layers of the new asphalt pavement with a total thickness of 19 cm were laid. About 44.000 tonnes of asphalt concrete mixes were used. The work schedule was influenced by the late landing of the aircrafts. Sometimes the works were prevented by rain. Moreover, the very start of works was often accompanied by prevailing heat. Therefore, having completed the works the road workers had to cool off the newly laid pavement with special equipment. Despite of time constraints the works were accomplished a couple of weeks earlier than contracted. The runway of the Kaunas International Airport, classified as the runway of category 4E, is one of the longest and widest. It was first constructed by the company Kauno tiltai more than 20 years ago.