Reconstruction of Irkutsk airport runway begins on Monday

IRKUTSK, August 8 (Itar-Tass) -- Reconstruction of the runway at the
Irkutsk international airport starts on Monday, the airport's press
service told Itar-Tass.
In the next 104 days, the runway will be closed from 11:00 a.m. to
23:00 local time and will receive and dispatch aircraft from 23:00 till
11:00 a.m.
It is planned to reconstruct 2,765 out of 3,565 meters of the 45-meter
wide runway, plus 7.5 meters of asphaltic concrete belts on both sides of
the runway. Apart from it, the rain sewage system will be renovated, water
treatment facilities and new lighting navigation aid will be installed.
As many as 600 million roubles have been allocated from the federal
budget to fund the restoration works at the Irkutsk airport. "For the
first time in Irkutsk, polymer asphaltic concrete will be used to make the
runway's surface more elastic and not so vulnerable to temperature drops
typical of the East Siberian climate. Moreover, we shall install a geogrid
to make the runway surface more durable," a source in the Trud company, a
general contractor, told Itar-Tass.
The bulk of the airports runway has a category one certificate of the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and has not been
renovated for more than twenty years.
"If everything goes on as planned, asphalt will have been laid by
October 20, 2011. The only break in the work will be in early September
when Irkutsk is to host the Baikal international forum and mark its 350
anniversary," the source said.