The renovation of the runway will affect residents and travellers. Planes will use the mid-sized crosswind runway and the small runway instead of the main runway on at least 23 weekends between 7 April and 30 November 2018. Garvens said aircraft noise on the paths into these runways could increase as a result. Areas such as Rösrath, Overrath and Wesseling will be affected the most. On the weekends when work is carried out, aircraft noise could also increase in the Wahn area of Cologne and in the Wahner Heide. From the autumn, the airport operators want hold town hall meetings to explain the impact of the works.

There is a risk of disruption to passengers on around six weekends between 21 April and 10 June 2018 when only the small runway will be open because of works to the area where the main and crosswind runways cross over. Large aircraft will not be able to take off and land. “Some flights will therefore probably have to be diverted to neighbouring airports such as Dusseldorf, Frankfurt or Dortmund,” said Garvens.

The so-called crosswind runaway is currently being renovated at a cost of around 20 million Euros. It is the mid-size of the total of three runways at Cologne-Bonn. The crosswind runway was originally used as an alternative runway when strong crosswinds made conditions on the main runway difficult. The crosswind runway has been closed to air traffic from October 2016 and will remain so until around March 2018. Around 100,000 square metres of concrete surface over a 1.5 kilometre length will be removed and replaced with asphalt. The airport can only begin to overhaul the main runway when the crosswind runway is in use again as the small runway is not sufficient.

“It is like open heart surgery,” said Garvens. Up to 500 construction workers will work at weekends. The individual maintenance groups need to be well coordinated to carry out the construction in the 30 hour window from Saturday at noon until Sunday at 6pm. The airport operator did not want to comment on the cost of the overhaul of the main runway. In initial plans, a cost of 24 million Euros was mentioned. Garvens said the additional cost of carrying out work at weekends alone now amounted 6 million Euros.

Once the step-by-step works to the 3.8 kilometre long main runway, which was last renovated in 1995/96, are completed, the airport should be well equipped for the next 20 years.

Original text: Delphine Sachsenröder.
Translated by Kate Carey.