Major runway work at Chopin Airport to start in April

As of 22 April Chopin Airport’s RWY 3 will be closed for six months due to major repair work, with all take-offs and landings moved to RWY 1, located on the Ursynów-Ursus axis. The airport operator has apologised to the residents of the two districts for the inconvenience this may cause, asking for their understanding.

The need for the overhaul stems from natural wear and tear, as the last major work on RWY 3 took place nearly 30 years ago. The runway has remained operational thanks to ad hoc resurfacing works carried out by the airport maintenance service, which cannot, however, replace major repair in the long run.

The work on the runway will result in a number of important changes, the most important being moving the landing threshold 600 m towards direction 33 (from Piaseczno), which will shorten the length available for landing from 3,700 m to a little over 3,000 m. In addition, a new rapid exit road, Sierra 2, will be built, enabling landing planes to taxi to the intersection with taxiway A (Alfa), straight into taxiway Z (Zulu).

“Thanks to these two modifications, the capacity of the runway will be significantly increased, allowing us to handle more aircraft movements,” said Andrzej Ilków, director of Chopin Airport’s Operations Safety Bureau.

The work will also involve replacing the concrete pavement of the runway’s thresholds with asphalt concrete, which is easier to maintain and repair and less vulnerable to temperature fluctuations. New, high modulus asphalt technologies, resulting in increased stiffness of the paved surface, offer better resistance to deformation, while at the same time making potential repairs easier – it will no longer be necessary to close the runway for a month, which used to be the case, as minor night time repairs will suffice.

The work will also include replacing the wearing course along the entire length of the runway and, partially, the base course; also, its load-bearing capacity (PCN) will be upgraded and the cross slope increased to 1%, resulting in better water drainage. The runway repair will run in parallel with work on taxiways Alfa (A0, A1, A2), Romeo (R1 and R2), Oscar (O1) and Sierra (S).

The repair is due to be completed in September, until which time all take-offs and landings will be performed on the shorter runway, RWY 1, with azimuth 11/29. This means that the landing approach path and take-off corridor will be over Ursynów and Ursus districts. Residents of Piaseczno, Włochy and Bemowo districts will enjoy more peace.