Airfield work sped up but end date will be missed
(CNS): The border closure in Cayman has drastically cut down air traffic and has given the Cayman Islands Airports Authority (CIAA) a chance to speed up the airfield work at Owen Roberts International Airport in George Town. But it’s still unlikely that the project will be completed before the original target date of September because the foreign experts are not able to enter the country as a result of the shut-down.
Officials have said the upgrade project has accelerated over the last few weeks after the work started in November but hit some technical hitches when the new runway was damaged by an aircraft. Even though a considerable amount of work has now been done, the team of experts required to work on the apron will not be able to enter anytime soon, which means that the job cannot be finished.
There are, however, five other jobs that will be finished on time, officials have said.
This includes the rehabilitation of the existing runway surface to increase its strength and durability, a runway extension, a new parallel taxiway, the filling of the ponds within the airfield perimeter and establishing an airfield perimeter road. These projects are all moving at pace, the airport officials said in a press release Wednesday.
“We are very pleased with the progress we have made in bringing big improvements to service, operations and safety standards at our airports and remain committed to enhancing the services and amenities we provide to our traveling public,” said CIAA CEO Albert Anderson. “As a result of the Cayman Islands Government’s temporary suspension of international flights to and from Owen Roberts International Airport… some aspects the Airfield Upgrade Project works are moving ahead of schedule.”
The airport boss explained that the runway strengthening consists of three layers of new asphalt, and the paving of the second layer was completed in mid-April. The third and final layer, which will include paved runway shoulders, will take about three weeks and should be finished by the middle of next month.
The runway extension and blast deflector is ongoing and is scheduled to be completed by late June with the taxiway under construction that is expected to be finished in July. Meanwhile the airfield ponds have already been filled in on the west end of the runway with the remaining two ponds to be finished next month along with the perimeter road.
The apron expansion work, however, which began in November has no completion date. Officials said the specialist UK concrete crew required for the project probably will not be permitted entry to Cayman until the borders re-open, which means the target completion date for the full project is probably still going to be missed.
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11:14 which time!
I love how actual experts from the US, UK and Canada…who literally design and build airfields for their careers….are being questioned by people who probably couldn’t tell the difference between concrete and asphalt.
CNS with the boarders closed for the next few months, what is the Government plan for the airline? British Airways looking to cut 12,000 jobs, about 100,000 employees at the four major airlines alone — American, United, Delta, and Southwest have agreed to take salary cuts or unpaid leave, some for as long as nine months according to Int’l news, I’m therefore concerned about what m the plan B for KX looks like?
People need to be reminded that the world doesn’t rotate around the Cayman Islands.
These experts may not be able to travel outbound, may be looking after their families, may not want two weeks of quarantine, may have other more pressing work elsewhere.
As for local experts, it’s not a bad thing to say in a local population of below 40k working adults, there’s no ‘heavy duty runway’ experts. It’s pretty niche!
why to start a project if foreign expertise was and is not available?
The ponds were there for a reason. Where will the water go now?
Part of the works is (I assume) a regrading (ditching & culverts) of the grass so all of the water drains sideways from the runway and then lengthways though the grass to the North Sound. As long as the runway, etc., is higher than the sea level the ponds should not be needed for the ponds for water management. (Though did serve a good purpose for many years. Especially after the old road was closed and formed a ‘dam’ cutting that (new) end of the airstrip off from the sea.)
Deep wells, but without a proper catchment system they’ll block up and we’ll end up with a runway for seaplanes.
5:13 Try a little HARDER i am sure, you can come up with some thing WORST!
forget the airport. bring in top economic experts to formulate a real plan to save our economy from collapse.
the do-nothing ppm and no-plan-alden are like a crows looking into a milk bottle…
What’s the point of fixing the runways. The plan is to keep everyone out until no cases of china virus exist elsewhere. Not likely for a very long time as vaccines for flu/corona type viruses are very hit and miss as well. Take a look at Venezuela for a glimpse into our economic future. So take your time on the airport as it won’t be needed for years!
So they can bring in experts to help us with Hurricane preparedness but not to finish the runway work?
“hurricane preparedness”, LOL
Public Sector (come when you call) Private Sector (no travel until All Clear)
The group that came in on the BA flight were willing to undergo the 14 day quarantine and are ding so.
12:06 Who you think are doing the RUNWAY WORK?
And they planned to do this by closing the runway on 8 Tuesdays last year.
11.49am This was the decision of our local expert Mr Anderson who then proceeded to advise all the airlines, who all changed their schedules and cancelled all existing bookings for the closed Tuesdays. Having caused all this chaos he then changes his mind just before the first Tuesday, having realised his local experts couldn’t handle it, and promptly caused more chaos with the international flight carriers. A classic case of bungle in the jungle.
Can someone tell me which side of the runway is the parallel taxiway going to be on? Logically I would think the northside but that seems a bit tight with Island Air and fire service.
I believe, in this upgrade, the parallel taxiway is from the end of runway (08) back to the main terminal only. Will stand corrected
What a stupid excuse..This thing will go on for years..
We are chartering British Airways to come in here almost once a week now with a ton of empty seats. If we really need these people, why don’t we bring them in on one of these empty flights, quarantine them for two weeks and get on with the job to complete it on time..
Stop wasting our hard earned money. We need every penny now!
11:14 which time!
no no no no no no no no
Seems there are always technical hitches and lack of local expertise.
This is because the contracts are not fully spec’d. Design build is a license to steal.