Airfield Construction and Maintenance Services

Colas' airports team have received two prestigious awards from CEEQUAL at the 2013 Outstanding Achievement Awards (OAAs) held at a One, Great George Street, London, 11 March.

Both awards were in recognition of Colas' planning and execution of the Falkland Islands Runway Resurfacing Project on behalf of client, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation.

The first award saw the company announced as overall winners in the Transport category: The Falklands project included the rehabilitation of Mount Pleasant Airport's pavements and Aeronautical Ground Lighting. The client requested that, for the duration of the project, the air­field would remain active (as along with its military role, it is also the island's only international airport); therefore works were designed, programmed and carried out to meet these constraints. The judges were impressed by the fact that, although the project was situated in a remote location, it was completed with no impact to military or commercial operations.

Judges' quote: "Delivering a project of this nature in such a remote location is no mean feat. Not only did the team minimise material deliveries but they also managed to keep this vital piece of transport infrastructure open for flights for the duration of the project."

The second award saw Colas Highly Commended in the Material Use category:  Marks were awarded for actions such as minimising material use, material storage, minimising waste, sub soil and top soil management. As Colas had locally sourced aggregate production they were able to avoid the import of 30,000 bags of aggregate from an overseas supplier. In addition an aggregate storage plan was produced which took into consideration the frequent Falkland winds. And the re-use of material eliminated any waste and further reduced the quantity of virgin aggregate (bedding sands) that would have been imported from the UK.

Judges' quote: The team worked hard to avoid importing materials from overseas. These efforts included challenging the speci­fication to promote resource ef­ficiency and to enable local materials to be utilised. This included the use of a signi­ficant amount of secondary aggregates, which in turn eliminated waste from the project."

The OAAs, now in their second year, were created to recognise and acknowledge construction projects that have demonstrated best practice performance and improved sustainability.