Thule: Apron and Runway

For this project, Munck Civil Engineering established a dedicated project camp with its own water supply, power generation, laboratory, workshop facilities, mobile crushing plant, and asphalt plant. In addition, large amounts of equipment were mobilised despite very limited access, with only two ship calls per year.

We mobilised 6 excavators, 3 wheel loaders, 4 dump trucks, 4 trucks, dozers, compaction equipment, asphalt paving equipment, and standard transport equipment, as well as generators and water pumps and a fully equipped workshop.

Three of our own employees were responsible for running the workshop, servicing and repairing all equipment. They carried out this work under very demanding conditions and with limited access to spare parts.

Scope of work
The project itself included removal of loose surface materials/soil, drilling and blasting of 45,000 m³ of rock, and crushing and production of subbase, base course, and aggregates for asphalt production.

We removed the existing runway pavement, including base course, excavated 30,000 m³ of subbase in permafrost, and established new subbase, base course, and subsequent asphalt layers. New runway lighting and markings were installed, and temporary runway lighting was set up during construction.

Due to the cold climate, the working season at Thule is limited, and a large part of the work was carried out around the clock, which placed extremely high demands on equipment and management resources. At peak activity, staffing on the project was around 50 employees.

Our equipment was adapted to the special and demanding conditions in permafrost areas. Among other things, we used specialised equipment to handle frozen soil containing rock materials.

Work on the apron was completed in September 2014, the first half of the runway in early September 2015, and the final section of the runway in August 2016.