Lec Airfield

Overview

The project was to produce a state of the art gliding facility, with a total of 3 grass runways and 1 tarmac runway, to offer year-round gliding facility.

The existing tarmac runway was extended to 850m which would permit the use of tug winches, with the grass runways preferred during the summer months and tarmac delivering a safe and usable surface for the winter.

For many years the airfield had become redundant, leading to large areas becoming overgrown with shrubs, trees and vegetation which was cleared by 60% by AMS Contracting. During the works, large quantities of concrete, metal, roofing and refrigeration parts were found across the site which had to be carefully extracted and recycled correctly.

Overview

The project was to produce a state of the art gliding facility, with a total of 3 grass runways and 1 tarmac runway, to offer year-round gliding facility.

The existing tarmac runway was extended to 850m which would permit the use of tug winches, with the grass runways preferred during the summer months and tarmac delivering a safe and usable surface for the winter.

For many years the airfield had become redundant, leading to large areas becoming overgrown with shrubs, trees and vegetation which was cleared by 60% by AMS Contracting. During the works, large quantities of concrete, metal, roofing and refrigeration parts were found across the site which had to be carefully extracted and recycled correctly.

Scope of the project

  • 650 metres of resurfaced tarmac runway
  • 3 separate grass runways, with a combined meterage of over 1200m
  • Land formed free-draining parking areas for gliders and small aircraft
  • Viewing platform
  • New access routes and parking areas

Approach

Tractor-mounted de-stoners and crushers were used to strip the topsoil off, with screeners removing contaminated material to produce a stone and debris-free top layer. Due to the site being a floodplain, a water management and environmental impact assessment were conducted to work with and around the extensive network of ditches and rifes – a number of which had to be piped to allow enough space for the new desired grass runways. Once completed the site had over 600m of pipe installed, complete with inspection chambers and non-return valves.

Lec Airfield required substantial amounts of land forming and earthworks to achieve the levels required to accommodate the new runways. Using our land forming software and machine-controlled grader, we were able to manipulate the levels of the site to direct water away from the tarmac runway and towards the rife which ran along the perimeter of the site. This area is now free draining without the need for primary and secondary drainage.

The use of a tractor-towed, GPS controlled grader allowed us to survey, design and install without the need of engineers. AMS were able to manipulate levels and gradients at any point, as well as quantify cut and fill operations.

Installation of the runway extension involved reducing existing ground levels by over 2m in-depth and 20m wide. The clay material was installed in 300mm layers and compacted using a heavy-duty roller to create a sub-base layer sufficient to support the runway extension. To aid drainage, cross falls were used to move the surface water off the runway and towards the main drain.

Topsoil was then spread evenly over the sub-base, cultivated, graded to level and seeded using a hard-wearing amenity grass.

Working with AMS

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