Bentofix® Airport Sealing

General Information

One of the largest infrastructure projects in Europe in recent years has been in Toulouse-Blagnac in France on the premises of the airport and the Airbus factory where in future the new Airbus A 380 is to be built. During the course of this construction project not only hangers where the wide-bodied aircraft is to be assembled were built but the whole infrastructure was aligned to accommodate the new dimensions of the European Airbus A 380. Runway No. 2 which was originally built as a test track for the super-sonic Concorde will be serving the Airbus A 380 from 2005. The necessary construction work includes widening the almost 4 km long runway by two meters in order to accommodate the 700 ton "silver bird“ with its wing span of almost 80 meters.

The conceptual design and advisory services for the client regarding this construction project were carried out in a cooperation between the airport operating company ADP Aeroport de Paris and the engineering company Scéauroute and the decision was taken to employ Bentofix® geosynthetic clay liners to seal the runway. Bentofix®, type NSP 4900 was used for the job. The whole system prevents any drainage water which has been contaminated by air and other means of traffic from polluting the ground water.

The whole job - earthmoving activities, installation of sewer pipes, service lines and pipelines, construction of roads and approach runways had to be completed within two months - plus - there was to be no hindrance to air traffic at the same time. As Bentofix® can be installed easily and extremely quickly in comparison to other conventional sealing systems, general construction work went ahead smoothly; in fact, the Bentofix® installation work was completed earlier than scheduled.

In total, 40,000 m² of Bentofix® and 24,000 m² of separation nonwoven Secutex® 201 GRK 3 were installed within just two weeks by a pool of construction companies made up of SCAM TP, SOGEA Hydraulique and AMEC Spie. The geosynthetics were supplied by NAUE APPLICATIONS S.A.R.L. The capital expenditure for the total extension work was 13 million Euro and was borne by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Toulouse and Airbus France. Once again, geosynthetics made by NAUE convincingly demonstrated their costefficient and ecological benefits - from every aspect.