Zirku Airport (UAE)
14 February 2018
Naples International Airport (Italy)
15 February 2018
DETAILS:
Traffic: 6.8 mil pax/year
Client: Gulf Consult, for the Kuwait Ministry of Transportation
Service: Specialist survey and risk assessment
Year: 2015
TASK:
Finding buried landfill beneath the footprint of a planned runway, and the flammable gas it could generate, before design and construction committed to the ground. The Kuwait Ministry of Transportation engaged Gulf Consult to evaluate the risk attached to the design and construction of the new Runway 15R/33L and its associated taxiways, infrastructure and utilities, and Gulf Consult in turn engaged Air Alliance to carry out the work. Ground penetrating radar was specified because of how it performs in non-wet soils: the most direct way to locate a landfill body is to find the boundary between ordered geological layers and chaotic dumped material. The areas identified by radar and by electrical resistivity tomography proved to be anthropised, showing chaotic deposits of variable thickness — typically 1.5 to 3 m, and in places as much as 6 m.
Focus
- Survey of the landing field across the proposed runway footprint
- Two-frequency ground penetrating radar investigation of the subsurface
- Electrical resistivity tomography as an independent cross-check
- Gas survey of the subsurface
- Identification of zones previously used as potential waste landfill
- Tracing of the lateral limits and, where possible, the base of the deposits
- Data processing with full report
- Comprehensive risk assessment for the planned third runway
