We are in the vicinity of Charleroi, Belgium’s third-largest city, not very far from Brussels. It is almost 10 o’clock in the evening, and night is falling on the city’s environs. The darkness is lit up, however, close to the airport: Countless low-loaders transporting Wirtgen cold milling machines, Vögele pavers, Hamm rollers and various other construction machines have lined up in front of a gate near the airport runway, accompanied by sweepers, trucks and escort vehicles. With interest, the assembled group of road building pros watch as the last aircraft of the day touches down at Charleroi airport at five to ten. A few minutes later, the control tower gives clearance for the work to begin – and the entire host starts moving immediately.

There’s a reason for this squad of construction machinery to assemble at such an unusually late hour: Rehabilitation of the 2.5 km long runway at Charleroi Brussels South Airport is about to commence. There were two possible options for repairing the damages in the asphalt pavement: either closing the runway completely for 7 to 10 days or completing the rehabilitation during the night hours. The local airlines were unable and also unwilling to discontinue all air traffic for more than a week, so that the operating company, BSCA, decided to carry out the rehabilitation during the night hours.
Six nights had been scheduled for the asphalt paving operation, meaning that the rehabilitation of a 460 m long section of the 48 m wide runway had to be completed each night. The time frame available for the operation was obvious: from 10 o’clock at night to 6 o’clock in the morning. Part of the pavement had to be milled off during these 8 hours, and 22,000 m2 of new asphalt pavement had to be placed and compacted, as well as new markings applied.

Learn more about this interesting job site in our new Job Report.