Kannur airport a story of engineering marvel

TRIVANDRUM: Kerala’s brand new Rs 18.92 billion Kannur airport on Wednesday released aerial photographs of the picturesque terrain transformed into an engineering marvel.

The airport company lattened around 700 acres of land for the operational area on a terrain spread in seven valleys of different depths, varying from 36 meters to 86 metres.

Moorkkanparampu, the place where the airport is located, was a rough terrain with several valleys where the land level was of a zigzag shape.

The authorities say earthwork for levelling the area, especially the land required for the operational area, was the biggest challenge before the team comprising engineers.

Construction major Larson & Toubro received the contract in November 2013 and inished the 3050-mere runway and 84 per cent of the airside work by May 2016.

It took more than two years to inish the rest and almost all facilities, including six aerobridges, will be ready when it opens on Sunday.

The company had to spend around 48 per cent of the total cost of the operational area for earthwork alone.

At some places, blasting was required to break the laterite, an excellent resource for construction, mainly the compound wall, and soil used for illing the valleys.

“Before the terminal and runway were built, no construction existed at the site. Weather and controlling the natural course of water were also a challenge,” said KP Jose, the executive director of Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL).

“The engineering team had to ensure that water low from the site mixed in mud lowing to the premises of the houses downhill was minimal. So we constructed outlets through which water lowed to two natural streams nearby.”

The highlight was the construction of runway end safety area (Resa) on the western end limiting the consequences when lights overrun during the landing or a rejected takeoff.

The 240 metre-resa mandatory as per international standards is ixed on a 90 metre- high surface developed with 6.4 million cubic metres or around 710,000 truckloads of soil.

“It’s a tough engineering task. With limited land available, the engineering team had no option but to develop the surface to meet the international standards of the runway,” a company release quoted him as saying.