An airport to sustain lives

St. Helena, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, is a small tropical island island of volcanic origin, measuring 17 x 10 kilometres (11 x 6 miles) and is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom, even if the island is almost 7,000 kilometres (4,670 miles) away. It is one of the most remote places on earth. The closest landmass is Africa, roughly 2,000 kilometres (1,333 miles) away from the island. Cargo, mail and equipment transportation limitations make life for the residents of St. Helena difficult and when the aging British ship, the RMS St Helena, broke down in 1999, the 4,000 residents of St. Helena were stranded with no means of coming or going and with no delivery of vital supplies because this ship was the island's only transportation to the mainland. It was decided to finally construct a green field airport, an airport built from scratch on an undeveloped site, on St. Helena and replace the ship as the main access provider to the island. After many years of negotiations and planning, the project commenced in 2012 with a budget of roughly £ 240 million (398 million USD, 300 million Euro), scheduled to be completed in 2016.

英国国际发展部项目经理奈杰尔·柯比（Nigel Kirby）说：“没有现代机场，几乎没有机会与任何事情进行经济竞争。”这个国际机场是圣海伦娜（St. Helena）的历史里程碑，将为该岛提供一个通过发展旅游和就业机会创造经济机会的机会，也许最终导致了该岛的经济自我维护性。建造该机场的项目是南半球最大的项目之一，并被授予南非建筑集团。

The construction site, located in the eastern part of the island, near Prosperous Bay, was one of the few areas to actually come in question because of the island’s rocky terrain and environmental issues. Dry Gut is the name of the gorge that will be part of the future airport’s runway. This gorge had to be drilled, blasted and filled with 8 million cubic metres (8 million cubic yards) of blasted rock for a depth of over 100 metres (328 feet) in order to become part of the airport’s 2,000 metre (6,562 feet) runway. After the gorge was filled, it had to sit for at least six months to avoid settlement problems and cracks in the runway, after which paving could begin.

But first the resources and equipment had to be shipped to the island. Basil Read contracted the NP Glory 4, a massive cargo vessel to transport amongst other things, a slipform paver equipped with Leica Geosystems PaveSmart 3D machine control, which was also used with Wirtgen Group’s paving & milling equipment, Leica Viva TS15 total stations and 45,000 m³ (58,860 yd³) of dune sand from Namibia, which was needed to pave the runway. To mix the concrete, more than five million kilograms of sand was needed and this was shipped in plastic bags weighing 1,000 kg (2,205 lb) each.

在从纳米比亚出发的船上之前，Leica Geosystems专家和Wirtgen技术员都共同进行了交付前检查。由于船的旅程需要五天，而且每月只有一次旅行，因此所有设备都必须工作，即使所有设备也是现场的额外设备。

摊铺机的铺路宽度为2.8米（9.2英尺），旨在与混凝土批处理厂的容量相匹配，在高峰运营时间时，每周六天可以进行两次班次。这些团队能够使用Leica Geosystems Pavesmart 3D机器控制和Leica Viva TS15总计进行混凝土生产。bob apple他们一起通过测量总站来实现了混凝土的优化收益，以精确跟踪摊铺机的位置和高程，并将任何跟踪校正返回到Pavesmart 3D机器控制中，该校正计算并纠正了摊铺机的位置。bob apple这有助于极大地简化铺路的物流。

Paving work started with the apron, a parking area for the aircraft not in use, and a concrete slab of 150 by 75 metres (492 by 246 feet) where the passengers will board and the planes will refuel. Also, close to this area will be a special surface dedicated to the private business jets.

Using the Leica PaveSmart 3D software, together with the TS15 total stations also saved the need to stake out with strings and eliminated the associated manual labour and expense necessary to set them up. The paver, concrete trucks and site vehicles no longer needed to drive around strings and decreased their workflow. Also when crews worked in low light conditions, the string-free work site was by far safer plus there was no accidental repositioning of the guidance strings at any time.

Leica Pavesmart 3D机器控制的繁荣湾独特的沙漠生态系统也从中获利。机器控制系统最大程度地减少了车辆的运动，还减少了运输材料的旅行。这使机场项目的足迹尽可能紧凑。

Basil Read is also well into completing the airport’s terminal building, air traffic control tower, fire facility and fuel storages, all part of a modern airport’s infrastructure and the first international flight should land on the completed runway by February, 2016. Basil Read, together with Lanseria, will also continue to maintain the airport for an additional ten years.

Besides building a link to the modern world and providing a fast and dependable means of modern transportation and delivery of necessary supplies, Basil Read, with the help of Leica Geosystems products and solutions, has brought about much needed employment opportunities and the hope of a better economic future with a better standard of living for the population of St. Helena.

Written by Fredrik Rudqvist