Airport work in full flight

Work at the Moruya airport is in full flight, with the runway asphalt planed completely away during the first day of operations.

Eurobodalla Council staff and sub-contractors are working seven days a week to ensure runway improvements are finished as quickly as possible. Council’s construction coordinator Greg Knight said good progress had been made as work began on Thursday 14 February.

“Make no mistake, this is major undertaking which has been months in the planning,” Mr Knight said.

“It’s been a smooth start to a very exciting project.”

He said having the right equipment was paramount.

“We dug up the entire pavement on the first day of work. We had three profilers in to do that.”

Major equipment and vehicles at the worksite total more than 50 machines. Mr Knight said that large trucks called scrapers would do most of the heavy lifting.

“A scraper weighs 30 tonnes and carries 30 tonnes,” he said.

“We’ve got a 20,000-tonne pile of gravel. Once the scrapers get to work, they’ll be shifting four to five thousand tonnes onto the runway each day.”

Mr Knight said work progressed faster at a contained worksite.

“The beauty of working within the airport boundary is the lack of traffic; things go quicker,” he said.

“Imagine if the scrapers were out on George Bass Drive, with all the delays of stop and go traffic control.”

The airport is scheduled to reopen on Thursday 7 March. Airport businesses have been consulted and all Rex Airlines flights have been cancelled between 14 February and 6 March inclusive.

The runway upgrade is a part of a $9.6 million redevelopment of the airport precinct funded by Council and the NSW and federal governments to drive economic development and employment across the Eurobodalla.

Find out more about the project here.