Falklands airport construction video 1985

mr. speaker with permission I should like to make a statement about the government's decision on the construction of an airfield in the Falkland Islands so began the Secretary of State the right honourable Michael Heseltine MP in his statement to the House of Commons on the 27th of June 1983 we have now decided the right course is to build of Mount Pleasant this is less expensive even the nine from the cost of a road in between Mount Pleasant and Stanley and it is much less likely to involve unforeseen delays and interruptions to the construction work the new airfield will be able to operate wide-body aircraft civil as well as military this will enable us to make welcome savings in the running costs of supporting the garrison and it will give a powerful boost to the economy and infrastructure of the island just over a year after the end of hostilities the official announcement heralded the start of one of the largest and most unusual overseas projects ever undertaken by the British construction industry [Music] the formalities however gave no hint of what had been going on behind the scenes for the previous 10 months the property services agency had been a hive of activity in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense basic design criteria had been defined and an outline solution formulated because of the pressure of time much of the detailed design work was placed with consultants while the PSA concentrated on the design and layout of the runways and paved areas but the PSA was also responsible for the overall management of the project which meant close collaboration with industry to produce a practical and cost-effective program there's minefields and we've got to go through all round they come back to us for the preliminary alone as a result of competitive tender the contract for the construction of the airfield was awarded to a consortium of well-known British firms Laing mowlam and Amy Road stone construction formed the LM a joint venture company whose combined financial strength management expertise and experience matched the scale of the project the task was to build in just 30 months an entire airport complex on a greenfield site which was presently occupied by Norman carry a shepherd whose closest neighbor until now had been 10 miles away you know you got any nurses lega a PSA team of land surveyors had been hard at work from August 1980 to carrying out a topographical survey of the site at a very early stage PSA were concerned about the effect the project would have upon the environment an ecological study was commissioned which concluded there would be little disturbance provided certain measures were taken one recommendation was at the nearest penguin colony at Bertha's Beach to be preserved as a Nature Reserve once the contract was let separate teams of LMA and PSA surveyors started setting up the airport so that construction work could start as soon as the workforce and plant arrived another major activity was drilling samples of rock from the proposed PI sites of all the many different kinds of material that would be eventually required for construction only rock water and a little sand were available in the islands [Applause] [Music] what we're trying to do is to establish how much overburden there is to start with which on this instance looks about three meters of overburden and weathered rock then we can start working in fresh Rock most of the rock is quite fresh although it's it's highly jointed and some of the joints surfaces are little weathered but then our one or two zones for example lap zone there which I just measured there's another one down here and a few more which it's weathered material and it's a sort of stuff we wouldn't like to see in our in our final product from this area we would expect to have a quarry face of something in the region of a hundred metres long at the moment we're looking for something in the order of a million tonnes from this particular site go and twenty-four workers construction of the self-propelled 100 ton flexi float barge started even before the Providence had come to anchor the 100 man pioneer team have been hand-picked for this particular job achieving the first bridgehead on Falklands oil [Music] within 48 hours the first ship-to-shore voyage of the Flexi float was underway [Music] this was the real test the historic first landing in Britain the center of the support organization was LMAs headquarters at CIMMYT here a team of engineers managers planners buyers and recruitment personnel had been set up to tackle the many problems of organizing men supplies and transport from our conversation yesterday first was the sheer size of the project in the first eight weeks 25 million pounds were spent on 850 capital items of plant and equipment in all 5,000 interviews to provide a workforce of over 2,000 at its peak and more than 27,000 drawings produced mainly by the PSA okay my chairs now I easily the largest project undertaken by the UK construction industry for many years and all focused on a greenfield site some 8,000 miles away unlike most overseas construction projects it was a condition of contract that plants and materials would be obtained within the United Kingdom where economic and practical labour would also come from the UK rust and diesels typical of many thousands of companies throughout Britain have benefited from contracts placed with them by the joint venture Ruston's particular task was to design and build eight large diesel generators to provide the entire airport complex with its permanent and standby power supplies for most of the suppliers the first stop in the long logistic chain was at Dudley hair shipments from all over Britain were export packaged for their outward journey but the want of a nail the shoe was lost sailed the nursery rhyme runs especially so in the Falklands where there is simply nowhere to go when you run short of the most trivial bits of equipment even off-the-shelf items right down to the last spark plug and number eight screw had to be ordered at least three months ahead to make sure of getting there when required the next step was even mouths near Bristol where geneco the freight forwarders for the joint venture gathered together ship loads for sonar go to carry self the key to the building at the airport in the Falklands was logistics at its peak the project required 300 tons of food and 1,200 tons of diesel fuel each month by the end of phase one over half a million freight tons of plant materials and equipment were handled through the port on 22 sailings spaced between three and five weeks apart a supply chain which had to reach almost 1/3 of the way around the world [Applause] it was now autumn in the southern hemisphere and East Cove had been transformed in just a few short months grasslands have given way to extensive lay down areas and marshalling yards safely secured to the shore the merchant Providence had become the bridgehead for the duration of the contract as well as being an important accommodation and Messing unit it was also the main fuel store with the novel and indeed crucial concept of the jetty vessel now completely vindicated regular shipments and men materials and equipment poured over the Bailey bridge [Music] [Applause] the lifeline between the bridgehead and the airfield site was the whole word the construction of its nine kilometers of crushed rock through bogie peatlands forged the last link in the long logistic chain on the airport site work had started 24 hours ahead of schedule on the leveling of the main runway the bulk earthworks involved moving over a million cubic meters of turf peeped clay and rock while the line of the runway had been chosen with care and for hills made it was difficult to be exact about what lay beneath each yard of turf and problems there were particularly with several localized very deep deposits of blue clay all of which had to be dug out and then in filled before firm foundations could be established an even more difficult problem at this stage was the supply of infill material itself too porous had been opened up in the search for suitable aggregates but the variable quality of the stone at times gave rise to serious concern while these problems were being tackled work in other areas pushed ahead communications were by now quite sophisticated by using a UHF radio link signals were beamed from the site offices to Port Stanley and then automatically transmitted via satellite the system provided computer link tally backs and telephone not only for business use but also to allow the workforce to dial direct to the UK the England had now settled into its regular routine of sailings between Cape Town and East Cove the workforce travelled by sheduled flights from London and transferred straight to the vessel for a comfortable 11 day passage everyone was advised to enjoy it while they could once ashore life would change and accommodation become more cramped living conditions in the Pioneer camp were at their worst in the period just before work on the permanent construction camp got into full swing although it was a time of hardship for all the determination of the Pioneers never faltered [Music] up at the construction camp why is plans prefabricated flat-pack accommodation units proved their value and were very swiftly assembled [Music] while autumn lasted priority was given to the erection of sports and recreation facilities as well as to the all-important main kitchens and mess halls well within six weeks it grew from nothing basically I went on lead and all there was was concrete foundations the LMA and the joint venture as such a firm Marvel's to throw the kitchen up in such a short space of time everybody's worked day and night on it and I think they've done a marvelous job over here we're what eight thousand miles away from home and a minimum of about eight weeks from a major Supply Drop so if we run out of anything you know it's something silly like washing up liquid we're a tweets from a the next supply which does cause a problem we pull wood by and forward plan something like three months in advance it doesn't take much to throw that snake oil [Music] our capacity will be about 1700 mills three times a day seven days a week 52 weeks a year we're like the windmill well used to be like the women we never pose while living candy 8,000 miles away it was a clear summers day and on a production line near Nottingham the prefabrication of units for the main RAF camp was well in hand the units were designed by building design partnership to withstand the worst of the Falklands weather and included a high standard of permanent fixtures and fittings the basic style of the buildings is a simple two-story structure arranged in rectangles forming sheltered courtyards the rectangles laid out in a basic street system with covered walkways giving protection from bad weather [Applause] [Music] by the time better weather had made its presence felt construction of the RAF camp was well underway at this time in late spring the workforce was almost at its peak and the drive towards completion of phase 1 was in full swing by now every part of the site had been transformed the main hangar and power station were externally complete and the character of the airport was now taking shape with a great feeling of permanence and solidity [Music] the problem of the variable quality in the rock was largely overcome at the quartzite quarry with operations being shifted a few hundred yards to the west opened up on three levels round-the-clock shift work operations were required to build up the massive volume of good quality rocks for infill and aggregates [Applause] but alight quarry was by now well developed on several levels aggregates had to be produced in quantity and on time 24 hour working was introduced in the processing area and additional crushing plant was made available to achieve volume production in all some three million tons of material would be required by the end of the contract the birth pavement quality and structural concrete and for asphalt paving for the runway [Music] [Music] on the runway rolled dryly in concrete was in progress team output peaked at about a hundred cubic meters per hour and depended totally on synchronization of batching tippers paving crew and rollers [Applause] 10 to 12 hours a day six days a week didn't leave a lot of free time for the workforce but LM a made sure that a full range of sports and social facilities were available for those who wanted to use them basically because about 8,000 miles away from home and you find the lads just can't go anywhere you know the biggest problem is that you can really get to a transport to go into Stanley because it's three hours drive by London over and it's a very very rough journey standards of accommodation steadily improved throughout the contract and while most of the workforce shared to to a room many had their own quarters the permanent construction camp now included a shop medical center barber laundry chapel and its own post office to handle the enormous volume of mail to and from the United Kingdom the recreation center which will be handed over to the client at the end of the contract includes the Sports Centre two video rooms and three bars [Music] the high standard of kelvins catering was preserved throughout breakfast and evening meals were taken in the main dining halls in the camp while lunch was provided for everyone on site near to their workplace to save traveling time it was largely due to these efforts by the joint venture that turnover of staff was low and 25 percent of the workforce opted for a second 14 month contract the Stanley Road at this time gave some cause for concern as it had now reached areas of very deep deposits of peat and clay the ground conditions in general were as anticipated but there were problems and these could only be overcome by concerted efforts if time was not to be lost by the end of 1984 most of the complex was well on the way to completion the petroleum supply depot near Mayer Harbor built by McKay engineering to supply both aviation and diesel fuel was nearing completion here as in every other part of the site quality control of the materials used was supervised throughout by the property services agency within the power station the last connections were being made between the diesel generators and the stir fry Network for the site when fully commissioned the station will be capable of supplying 10 megawatts which is sufficient to meet the needs of a town of some 10,000 people the production of asphalt signals the beginning of the end of the construction of the main runway as well paving must be laid quickly and continuously loss of heat means loss of workability so speed is essential as was coordination and controlled by the contractor if the demanding schedules were to be maintained as the target date the phase one approached the site was a hive of activity with both PSA and LMA checking and rechecking to ensure that all the facilities necessary for opening the runway for RAF operational use would be complete and ready on the day for the people of the islands a way of life has changed but much of this change has been welcomed in terms of their security independence and economic development nothing has been more welcome than the building of the new airport management effort fiber PSA and LM a made sure that fears of a massive disruption to social life in the islands were proved groundless [Applause] as the falklands summer wore on and the handover in late April 1985 loomed closer activity intensified in those parts of the site which had to be complete by the end of phase one work on the main runway and hard standing areas was on schedule by the end of the contract eighty thousand cubic meters of pavement quality concrete and 150 thousand tons of asphalt will have been laid [Music] the main hangar designed and built by war brothers is the largest structure on site and incorporates 600 tons of steel installation of the runway lighting was one of the final tasks for Balfour Kilpatrick the main mechanical and electrical subcontractor the main power station which had been built from foundations up in only nine months was commissioned by Ruston's in February 1985 and the full power supply was made available for the entire site including runway lighting and air traffic control systems [Music] throughout the summer construction of the road to Fort Stanley forged ahead provision of extra men and equipment at both ends of the road ensured that earthworks teams met up in March and the temporary surface was ready on target by the end of April successful flight trials and proving flight enabled the main runway together with all the facilities necessary for its operation to be handed over by the LM a joint venture to the property services agency in April 1985 the stage was now set for the official opening petal did by the arrival of the inaugural quite clear too long in less than two years from the signing of the contract and only 80 weeks after coming ashore at East Curry the first passenger aircraft touched down at Mount Pleasant Airport exactly on schedule [Music]

Channel: Steve Haskett

Views: 100,041

Rating: 4.7675977 out of 5

Keywords: infrastructure, impossible build, 1985, falklands war, laing, mowlem, amey, mount pleasant airport, royal air force, south atlantic, falkland islands, airport, construction, malvinas, how to build an airport

Id: CUURpBzttrA

Length: 25min 30sec (1530 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 12 2019