Runway 1 at Roissy-CDG Airport completely renovated for the first time

Runway 1 at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport, one of the longest and serving North America in particular, is undergoing complete renovation for the first time, without impacting air traffic, according to the ADP group.

Long-planned, the renovation began in mid-July and is due to be completed in mid-November, with the runway expected to reopen in early December, ADP, which manages the airport, said during a press visit on Tuesday.

Some 550 people are working on this large-scale project with a "very short deadline," according to Pierre Feuerstein, project director at Colas, a subsidiary of the Bouygues group specializing in transport infrastructure, which won the ADP group's call for tenders.

The cost of the renovation is around one hundred million euros, according to the ADP group.

In addition to the runway, the 23 "taxiways" (access roads on which aircraft taxi to and from the runways), the two safety areas located at the end of the runway and the two bridges overlooking the A1 motorway and the TGV line are also being renovated.

Aircraft weight, repeated passages and braking, high speeds: airport runways are subject to high stresses which can cause wear.

The work is being carried out as a preventative measure to "rehabilitate well in advance of any damage," according to Philippe Coustal, renovation project director at ADP.

At 4,2 kilometers long, runway 1, located in the northern zone of the airport, is one of the four runways at Roissy-CDG and one of the longest.

Although it had already been partially renovated (notably the upper layer), it had never been completely rehabilitated since the airport opened in 1974.

The workers removed 70 centimeters of the different layers of material that made up the track.

Of the 259.000 tonnes of recovered materials, 76% were reused directly in certain areas of the construction site, according to Colas, which considers it has reduced CO50 emissions on the project by 2%.

Measuring instruments were installed under the runway to better analyze its behavior when planes pass over it.

The closure of runway 1 - usually reserved for takeoffs - has had no impact on air traffic, the group assures, specifying that planes are being diverted to the parallel runway 3.

The next renovations are already planned by ADP: 2026 for one of the Orly runways and 2027 for runway 2 at Roissy.