Lagan wins trio of military airbase contracts

It has secured contracts with the UK’s Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) in Gibraltar and Cyprus, with combined construction work valued at an estimated £31 million. The third contract is with the US Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) for runway repairs at the Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Milton, Florida, with works valued in excess of  US$14m.

Work on the RAF Gibraltar base involves a repair and upgrade of the current runway surface as well as improvements to the airfield ground lighting, with the project due to be finished by January 2016. The airfield upgrades completed by Lagan Construction International will provide a 20-year design life. Plant and equipment owned by Lagan Construction International will be shipped in from the UK along with aggregates from the UK.

The Gibraltar airfield's runway is 1825m long, running from east to west, with about a third of it projecting outwards into the sea to the west. As well as being a military airfield, run by the RAF on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, Gibraltar is also an international airport servicing scheduled civilian flights to and from the UK. Work must therefore be completed without disruption to normal airfield activities so that the airfield remains fully operational throughout the execution of the works.

The contract at the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus will be carried out by a joint venture of Lagan Construction International and local contractor Iacovou Brothers. The project is set to include the refurbishment of the airfield operating surfaces and associated airfield ground lighting, with work to be completed by January 2017. 

The project at NAS Whiting Field will consist of reconstruction and rehabilitation of runways on the south airfield which will take approximately one year to complete. Lagan Construction International will mobilise plant, equipment and personnel in the coming weeks. It will produce and place over 100,000 tons of hot-mix asphalt (HMA) by installing and operating an in-house portable batch plant on-site.

Colin Loughran, CEO of Lagan Construction Group, said: “Having completed projects on over 50 airports across five continents, airport infrastructure works are a core part of our business and our teams are experienced in providing the engineering skills and technologies necessary to deliver both airside and groundside support facilities.  We have a fully committed team to ensure the contracts are delivered with the highest safety standards, within programme and cost requirements.”

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