Nottingham East Midlands Airport (NEMA) has grown in the past
five years from a large provincial airport to a major passenger and
freight terminal serving a wide community in the East Midlands.
Aggregate Industries has had the opportunity to work on a
number of projects during this period to develop the
facilities to meet the demands of the 21st
century. Airports present particular challenges both in terms
of the materials used and the practical aspects of laying them
while maintaining the flow of traffic.
The first major contract was for the resurfacing of the taxi
areas with an SMA material (supermat). Working closely
throughout the planning and application stages of the project, the
resurfacing did not interfere with the safe movement of
planes. Unlike many airports, NEMA operates 24 hours a day
because of the amount of air-freight handled. In common with
all airport jobs one of the key concerns is the elimination of
Foreign Object Debris (FOD), which can arise from a poorly laid
surface. FOD can cause major and catastrophic accidents, such
as the Concorde crash in Paris in 2000.
NEMA is faced with another challenge. As airports grow so
does the demand for car parking facilities. The Airport has
restrictions on the rate that surface water running off the site
can be discharged into the River Trent. With enlarged areas
of hard surfacing for car parks this discharge condition was harder
to meet.
To make matters more urgent the conditions have been tightened
further. The Sustainable Drainage approach is ideal in such a
situation (see section on SUDS). By covering the new car park
in a surface that slows the movement of water from the airport to
the river, and at the same time cleaning it of some of the
contaminants, NEMA could continue to meet its legal water discharge
conditions.
Working in partnership with such a major client brings with it
many issues. NEMA is, like much of Aggregate Industries,
certified to ISO14001 for Environmental Management. So a
contractor which is familiar with the controls and requirements of
such a system is desirable, and saves time and money in training
and supervision.