{"id":1545,"date":"2016-02-02T19:40:14","date_gmt":"2016-02-02T18:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revistaitransporte.com\/en\/trayectoria-ascendente\/"},"modified":"2016-02-26T15:37:38","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T14:37:38","slug":"on-the-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revistaitransporte.com\/on-the-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"On the rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four million passengers in 2016: this is the growth forecast for the Rafael N\u00fa\u00f1ez airport in Cartagena de Indias according to SACSA, the concession company. Majority-owned by the Spanish company Aena Internacional, in 2011 SACSA embarked on a project to improve and expand airport facilities, both on ground and in the air, in order to adapt airport capacity to the growing demand. Ineco recently updated the airport\u2019s Master Plan which plans for expansion work until 2020 and has also designed and coordinated construction work (see IT48<\/a>). Five years ago, work began on passenger terminal building renovations and expansion; work then continued on the design and surveillance of work on the runway, aprons, the perimeter road and the new FBO terminal for general aviation services.<\/p>\n

The increase in traffic at the airport is associated with the tourism and industrial activity in this city \u2013located on the coastline of the Caribbean Sea\u2013, whose characteristic, walled historic quarter has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984. The city stands out as a domestic holiday destination, and although the number of international arrivals has increased, the majority of the city\u2019s air traffic is mainly domestic with connections to the capital, Bogot\u00e1, as well as to main cities such as Medell\u00edn and Cali. In terms of international flights, top destinations include southern Florida in the United States in addition to Chile, Venezuela and Spain.<\/p>\n

In order to drive the tourism sector, the airport operator and local entities such as Corporturismo and the Cartagena City Council are committed to implementing additional long-distance routes both to North America \u2013the city\u2019s main source of outbound tourism\u2013 and to Europe \u2013especially to Germany and Spain. Airlines are thus operating larger aircrafts, in turn requiring airports to provide greater capacity as well as increased safety and security \u2013both operational and physical. Since all work must be carried out without interfering with airport operations, Ineco also conducted a study on the different stages of construction in order to minimise the effects as much as possible.<\/p>\n

Greater passenger and aircraft capacity<\/h4>\n

Thus, the construction work that was carried out at Rafael N\u00fa\u00f1ez airport met these requirements: the current terminal building which was expanded from 2011 to 2013 has grown from 10,491 m2<\/sup> to 19,370 m2<\/sup>. Expansion of the international hall is currently under way. The runway in addition to the main and secondary (or ECO) aprons were repaved between 2013 and 2014 to repair damaged areas and to increase their load bearing capacity. The axis of the turnaround area was modified to make it easier for large aircrafts to move around, and signalling and traffic guidance equipment was also improved.<\/p>\n

With regard to the runway, Ineco designed and coordinated the installation of an asphalt mix that had never before been used in Colombia: a discontinuous, BBTM-11 bituminous mixture (with additional fibres) in a 4-cm screed used on 1,740 metres of the runway\u2019s 2,540 total metres. The asphalt not only improves friction conditions on the wearing surface, but it also facilitates drainage and prevents hydroplaning.<\/p>\n

On both aprons, a P-401 bituminous hot mixture with a maximum aggregate size of \u00be\u201d was used with a BMIII modified asphalt, with varying thicknesses of 5 to 12 centimetres. The landing gear stop-way was also reinforced with 33-cm concrete slabs. Since there are fewer demands with regard to reinforcements on the perimeter road and pedestrian areas, a MDC-2 bituminous hot mixture with B60\/70 asphalt was installed.<\/p>\n