SUMBURGH AIRPORT, SHETLAND

Protecting the end of the main runway at Sumburgh Airport

The end of the runway protrudes out into the North Sea and was being damaged by overtopping waves and washout from the seawall core during severe weather, which put airport operations at risk.

Works involved the construction of a 270m secant piled cut-off wall using 540 600mm diameter Odex piles.

Additionally, we replaced the existing undersized rock armour with 24 tonnes of  Norwegian rock armour.

We also regraded the existing revetment before placing concrete Xbloc units, which completed the revetment works.

All of our works on-site were in accordance with required airside procedures, passes and restrictions.

We established a precast concrete production yard outside the 70m airside exclusion zone. This permitted us to progress with the production of 1,700 Xbloc units, permitting 24-hour access and working as required. Rock units up to 24t were imported to Shetland by barge from Norway.

A significant challenge we faced on this scheme was the exposed tidal location, which also had the additional challenges of limited daylight hours during the winter months and severe weather conditions.