Transforming Dublin Airport

We are currently investing more than €85 million to build a series of new aircraft parking stands and taxiways at Dublin Airport.

The extra stands and taxiways will make the operation of the airfield more efficient as they will make it easier and faster for aircraft to access the passenger facilities from the runway.

In total the DAA will build about 80 acres of new concrete apron. When finished, the new aprons and taxiways will just be a large area of concrete, but it takes a huge amount of planning and hard work to get to that point.

Before starting to dig, the airfield team has to divert any existing services and new ducts have to be installed for essential lighting, electricity and communications systems.

Typically workers have to dig down more than a metre to allow for new ducting, drainage and the three layers that are needed to create a new concrete surface strong enough to support hundreds of aircraft every day.

Stone is used as the foundation for the new apron and lean mix, which is a combination of stone and cement, forms the middle layer. This is compacted and a final layer of pavement quality concrete is then laid.

Painting and lighting are installed and we carefully check and re-check all new areas of apron and taxiway before they go into service.