The need to construct more sustainable, durable and low maintenance airfield infrastructures has become very important in recent years due to the environmental pressure and customer expectation. Traffic delay during maintenance and its impact on airport operations has also become a significant issue as airports face increasing pressure to maximise runway availabilityto meet increasing aircraft utilisation. The paper reviews the use of alternative asphalt surfacing materials in UK airfield pavements to provide abetter whole life solution and to address some of the above points. The use of the French BBA (Beton Bitumineux pour Chaussees Aeronautiques) surfacing and EME2 (Enrobe a Module Eleve 2) base were investigated. The materials' mechanical properties and their impact on pavement thickness design, constructability and maintenance requirements are reviewed. The environmental advantages of constructing thinner stiff pavement and reducing aggregates and asphalt use are also considered. The French material properties are compared with those of typical materials used in the UK. A case study ofusing the BBA surfacing on the runway resurfacing project at Sumburgh airport in the Shetland Islands is presented. Issues related to material developments, logistics, main construction and practical implementation experienced by Colas during the construction at Sumburgh are highlighted. For the covering abstract see ITRD E139491.
Abstract