London City Airport awards BAM Nuttall with major contract for concrete deck extension

The Development Programme will significantly change London City Airport, with improved facilities for customers, an expanded offer of flights, and greater space to accommodate increasing passengers, enabling annual passengers to grow from the current 4.5 million to 6.5 million.

The piling and decking contract value is approximately €95 million (£85 million) and BAM Nuttall is supported by its sister company BAM International. The work entails BAM extending the airport’s concrete deck out over the King George V Dock supported by over 1,000 concrete piles with steel casings – each approximately 20m in length. Works on site will take place while the airport remains operational, and commence in Spring 2018, once the unexploded ordnance (UXO) survey is complete, which recently yielded the discovery of 500kg Second World War device that was safely disposed of by the Royal Navy. Completion of the deck is expected in early 2020.

Peter Adams, Chief Development Officer at London City Airport, said: ‘The contract is the first big step forward in the airport’s development programme, essentially creating new land that will provide the base upon which we will build the majority of the transformational infrastructure, including the extended terminal building and additional aircraft stands. BAM has proven expertise and experience in these techniques and we are really pleased they are on board to deliver this project alongside the overall delivery partner, Bechtel.’

Martin Bellamy, BAM Nuttall Executive Director, said: ‘We are delighted that BAM have been selected to deliver such a major marine civil engineering project that draws on our relevant expertise and experience. This scheme will play a significant part in the overall Airport Development Programme and will support the planned infrastructure such as the aircraft stands and new world class passenger terminal extension. We are looking forward to successfully delivering this prestigious project, working alongside London City Airport and Bechtel.’

The new deck will consist of precast reinforced concrete planks with a reinforced concrete topping spanning onto precast concrete beams supported on more than 1,000 large diameter bored concrete piles with steel casings in the dock bed (typically spaced at 10m centres). Average water depth is around 10m with the average pile length being approximately 20m. Additional work includes the partial demolition of the King George V Dock wall to enable tying in of the new deck, construction of a partly submerged service trough and drainage channels, and approximately 50 land based piles adjacent to the airport entrance.

In 2008 London City Airport also applied a piling and decking technique on a £47 million extension in order to build four new aircraft stands above the waters of King George V Dock.

BAM has been involved in the construction, extension or renovation of many airports, including Schiphol in the Netherlands, Terminal 2 Munich and Berlin Brandenburg in Germany, Zaventem and Charlerois in Belgium, Cork in Ireland, Bristol, Newcastle, East Midlands and Heathrow in the United Kingdom, Harare in Zimbabwe and Sheikh Rashid terminal in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Currently BAM International and BAM Nuttall are delivering Terminal 3 at Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam, as well the design and construct contract for the rehabilitation and extension of Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) in Tanzania.

Further information

• analysts: Joost van Galen, +31 (0)30 659 87 07, joost.van.galen@bam.com;
• press: Arno Pronk, +31 (0)30 659 86 21, arno.pronk@bam.com.