(CMR) Upgrades at the Owen Roberts International Airport (ORIA) have continued at an accelerated pace, said the Cayman Islands Airports Authority (CIAA) who provided an update on the project on Wednesday (April 29).
However, things could hit a standstill for the apron expansion part of the project, as travel restrictions prevent a specialist concrete crew from being able to enter Cayman from the United Kingdom, until the Island’s borders reopen.
Despite the challenges the CIAA revealed that some projects may actually finish ahead of time noting that the strengthening of the runway, which will see that addition of three layers of new asphalt, is expected to be completed by mid-May 2020.
“We are very pleased with the progress we have made in bringing big improvements to service, operations, and safety standards at our airports and remain committed to enhancing the services and amenities we provide to our traveling public,” said CIAA CEO Albert Anderson.
“As a result of the Cayman Islands Government’s temporary suspension of international flights to and from Owen Roberts International Airport, announced on 16 March 2020 in an effort to slow the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), some aspects the Airfield Upgrade Project works are moving ahead of schedule due to the increased availability of the airfield to perform the works,” he added.
Other aspects of the project, including the runway extension and blast deflector are ongoing and are scheduled to be completed by late June 2020; while the new taxiway is currently under construction and is scheduled to be completed by mid-July 2020.
“During these challenging times, we are more proud than ever of our dedicated teams working behind the scenes to provide our customers with professional, innovative airport services and facilities in a safe, efficient manner, and we look forward to being able to share in this airfield transformation with the community going forward as we all work together to bring normalcy back to our daily lives,” said Anderson.
The Airfield Upgrade Project works commenced in early November 2019 and consists of six sub-projects, including the rehabilitation of the existing runway surface to increase its strength and durability, a runway extension, a new parallel taxiway, the filling of the ponds within the airfield perimeter, establishing an airfield perimeter road and expanding the aircraft parking ramp in an easterly direction to provide additional aircraft parking.
The apron expansion work was the first of the sub-projects to begin late last year, followed by the runway rehabilitation, additional taxiway, and extension in February 2020.
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