Mali’s international airport sees improvement

A three-year modernisation programme at Bamako-Sénou international airport will improve the facility and allow larger aircraft and greater passenger numbers. The Malian Government has been undertaking a vast extension of the airport with the aim of being able to accommodate over a million passengers/year and all sizes of passenger aircraft.

The project is being handled by MCA-Mali, a consortium led by 2747 Razel-BEC and also including the 2498 VINCI Group, which is active in Mali. Guillaume Derousseau, construction manager for MCA-Mali said, “The first construction phase, mainly earthworks, consisting of extending the existing runway by 500m, was completed in January 2012. Then began the reinforcement of the runways and car parks, which required meticulous phasing to limit the project’s impact on flight operations, as the airport had to continue operating throughout the works. This phasing revolved around thirteen runway closures of 30-72 hours: periods during which the airport was closed and when our teams performed continuous planing and asphalt-laying operations.”

In all some 70,000 tonnes of asphalt were laid on the runway, taxiway and car parks. For this short-term project (one year), the client required a very large equipment fleet, with reserve units for nearly all machines to cope with potential breakdowns. Numerous machines bearing the brand names of the Fayat Road Building Equipment Division were used with asphalt production handled by two 211 Ermont TSM 15 and 17 parallel-flow continuous asphalt plants, and one Ermont emulsion plant. All of RAZEL Africa’s different skills were put to work on this project carried out by personnel of 11 different nationalities.

2779 Fayat Group machines from 172 Bomag also carried out the preparation, paving and compaction work. Surface preparation was handled by a BM 1000 milling machine, with paving carried out by four BF600s. The compaction duties were handled by three BW202 heavy tandem rollers and one BW 61 combination roller, as well as a BW219 single-drum roller. To ensure the freshly prepared asphalt surfaces were clean from any debris that could cause costly damage to an aircraft engine, a SCARAB Major 7001 vacuum sweeper was also employed.