Palma de Mallorca Airport (PMI) reopened its northern runway (06L-24R) at the end of 2020, after completing the surface refurbishment work; a construction project that the companies MAB Obras Públicas S.L and Sampol Ingeniería y Obras S.L. have participated in, and which received consulting services from the AERTEC engineering firm. The runway, with a length of 3,270 meters and a width of 45 meters, now also has almost 6,000 linear meters of the new ACO Qmax Neo high-capacity drainage channel for the collection and evacuation of rainwater and wastewater.
In order to guarantee that the northern runway of the Palma de Mallorca Airport complied with the highest standards in the fields of safety and operational reliability, AENA (Spanish Airports and Air Navigation) commissioned different work to be carried out, such as the replacement of all the beacons and the existing light signals with LED technology, and the renovation of the runway’s surface. In the first case, the measure sought to improve the energy efficiency of the airport’s infrastructure and, in the second case, with the refurbishment of the ground, it sought to adapt its runways and build two rapid exit taxiways for aircrafts.
To increase safety on airport runways, the rainwater drainage system was also refurbished to prevent the runways from flooding, especially during air operations in rainy conditions. This new water evacuation system was designed with 8,000 linear meters of maximum-capacity drainage channels, most of which are the new ACO Qmax NEO 300 model.
According to the MAB construction company, “The drainage solution works perfectly, in fact, during the first few weeks of 2021, we had episodes of heavy rain and we had the opportunity to test its capacity. The result has been satisfactory.”
In addition to the Qmax drainage channels, 11 high-strength Combipoint PP grates have also been installed on the sides of the runways and 46 circular Multitop cast iron manhole covers.
