RAF Brize Norton's £180m runway revamp nears completion, built to withstand extreme weather

Major upgrades at RAF Brize Norton are nearing completion. Whether it's extreme heat, rain or snow, I'm told this new runway will stand the test of time. 

The runway at the UK's largest military air base is set to reopen next month, having been closed since July.

"We have a very firm delivery date that we cannot miss," James Darwent, Senior Project Manager at construction contractor VolkerFitzpatrick, tells me.

• Runway ready: RAF Brize Norton airfield closed for planned maintenance period
• Work begins to replace all 3km of runway at Brize Norton – the RAF's biggest station
• Construction to begin on RAF Akrotiri's new multi-million pound passenger terminal

The project is costing £180 million and means the 3km long runway is being fully replaced along with the taxiways being refurbished.

Crews working 24/7 have laid more than 42,000 tonnes of asphalt and installed over 80,000 metres of cabling to modernise the essential airfield, which included upgrades to lighting and drainage systems.

A lot of the work has gone 'underground', so it may not be obvious at first where the money has been invested. 

However, Air Commodore Phil Reid, the Head of Air Infrastructure, says the project "demonstrates both air and UK defence's commitment to making sure we've got the kind of infrastructure we need to operate in the future, to make sure we're providing ready, safe and resilient airfields, to make sure we can deliver UK defence output in the years to come."

The revamp means the runway is going to be able to deal with the effects of climate change too. 

"The new asphalt material that's installed is at a far greater spec than the emergency repair work that was done," Mr Darwent said.

"There was so much of it that, effectively, in high temperatures, the runway was almost like oozing. So now that's gone, we won't get any of that."