Ministry of Defence
The station handles both military and civilian flights on its 6000 ft runway, a third of which juts into the sea. The runway is also crossed by a 4 lane road which is the only road to Gibraltar from Spain.
The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) awarded the contract for the project, which involved the replacement of some 15,000 tonnes of asphalt and 200 airfield lights, to Lagan Construction in May. Despite work taking place at night to reduce disruption to the station, the construction phase took only 4 months.
David Graham, DIOs Deputy Head of Programme and Projects Delivery International, said:
Investing in infrastructure to enable military capability is a huge part of what DIO delivers for defence so Im really pleased with how quickly and smoothly this project has progressed. This was only possible because of how closely DIO, Lagan Construction, RAF Gibraltar and the government of Gibraltar worked together to mitigate any possible problems.
The refurbished runway is expected to last for around 20 years.
An infographic of the
is available.