Collaboration & Shared Global Expertise at Colas for Runway Surfacing

The Colas Ltd joint venture project at Hoima International Airport in Uganda is progressing well and paving of the runway and taxiways is underway.

Paving a runway that is 3500m long and 60m wide including shoulders, requires specialist experience beyond road works. Transverse joints, longitudinal joints, compaction, evenness, surface texture, levels are just some of the aspects which require specialist airfield experience.

To assist the Ugandan paving team in ensuring the best possible start as they undertake the runway paving the project team in Uganda were able to draw on Colas’ global expertise and support the project with an experienced team from Colas Iceland during February and March to share their knowledge and skills with the team in Uganda.

The team of six from Colas Iceland have extensive experience of surfacing numerous runways, including all three international airports in Iceland and two runways in Greenland, the main difference with these being that Hoima is not yet an operating airport, and the weather is much different in Uganda, highlighting the importance of good practices such as monitoring temperature, getting real-time feed-back on compaction and being in close contact with the asphalt plant were.

The local project manager at Hoima, and other senior project staff expressed their happiness with the team from Colas Iceland in supporting and sharing knowledge with the local paving team and are looking forward to continuing the paving project after this positive start.