Airport Tunnel on time and on budget and turned over to Airport Authority

During the summer, Mayor Nenshi met with the many people building the Airport Trail Tunnel over burgers at an on-site barbecue. His message to them: "You're doing great work to keep Calgary moving. But I still only want to ever hear four words about this project: On. Time. On. Budget." Today, The City of Calgary released great news about the on time and on budget progress of this major piece of much-needed infrastructure...

Tunnel under new runway turned over to Airport Authority

[click here to see visual update]

The City of Calgary officially “turned over” the first piece of the Airport Trail tunnel—the runway section—to the Calgary Airport Authority.

The City agreed to hand over this section to the Airport Authority by August 31 so work can begin on constructing the runway over top of the tunnel.

The 620-metre long tunnel structure is being constructed to accommodate six lanes of traffic, with the provision for a future transitway, and will extend Airport Trail from Barlow Trial to 36 Street N.E.

“This is a major milestone as we move toward the completion of the tunnel,” said Gordon Stewart, Director of Transportation Infrastructure. “Project managers and work crews have done an outstanding job in meeting the tight construction schedule requirements and maintaining budget.”

The walls and roof of the tunnel are being poured in sections—50 in total. Each tunnel section requires 850 cubic metres of concrete which takes 80 trucks to deliver in a 12-hour period. As of September 4, 41 sections of the tunnel shell have been formed, meaning that nearly 35,000 cubic metres of concrete has been poured since the first tunnel section was completed early this year.

All sections of the concrete walls and roof will be poured by this fall.

Prior to the turn over date the other work that needed to be completed was waterproofing and backfilling the concrete sides of the tunnel walls up to a level where the runway can be built over top the tunnel.

Along with backfilling the concrete sides of the tunnel walls, the other elements that need to be done prior to full completion include electrical and mechanical work, installation of lighting and road construction inside the tunnel.

Most of the work on the roadways will take place in 2013. The entire project is expected to be completed by May 2014.

City Council approved a budget of $294.8 million for the entire project.

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Onward/The City is strategically building up its road network to make travelling easier while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I 2012-14 Council’s Fiscal Plan: Focus road investments on chokepoints in the existing road network.

Media Backgrounder – Airport Trail Tunnel project
September 5, 2012

Overall scope of project

• The Airport Trail tunnel is a 620-metre tunnel that will run under the new Calgary International Airport runway, taxiway and service roads.
• The tunnel structure is being constructed to accommodate six lanes of traffic, with the provision for a future transitway.
• The project includes extending Airport Trail from Barlow Trial to 36 Street N.E. as a six-lane roadway, and widening Airport Trail between Deerfoot Trail and Barlow Trail from four to six lanes.

Current status of project

• The City has met its obligations to the Calgary Airport Authority to “turn over” the tunnel portion under the new runway by August 31, 2012.
• More than 80 percent of the tunnel concrete infrastructure has now been poured, resulting in nearly 35,000 cubic metres of concrete being poured since the beginning of the year (first pour was Feb. 24).
• The pouring of concrete will continue into the fall.
• Besides the pouring of the tunnel walls and roof, The City also has to make sure that waterproofing and backfilling of the tunnel walls is also completed so the Airport Authority can build the new runway over the tunnel.

Timeline schedule of project
February 2011 – City Council approved construction of the Airport Trail tunnel
July 2011 – excavation began
February 2012 – concrete pour of the first of 50 tunnel walls and roof sections
August 31, 2012 – hand over to Calgary Airport Authority (CAA) of tunnel under the future runway
Fall 2012 – anticipated completion of tunnel concrete work
Oct. 31, 2012 – anticipated hand over to CAA of tunnel under taxiways
2013 – majority of roadwork construction will take place
June 30, 2013 – hand over to CAA of entire tunnel
May 2014 – project completion.

Project budget
City Council approved a budget of $294.8 million for the entire project.

Other construction highlights/interesting facts relating to this project

• The length of the tunnel (620 metres) is approximately the length of four-and-a-half CFL football fields.
• The tunnel will be 36 metres wide and the depth from the runway to the road surface will be 12 metres.
• Over 600,000 cubic metres of earth material and rock has been excavated.
• The excavation was approximately 15 metres deep by approximately 50 metres wide.
• The project includes the installation of underground utilities. Over 2.5 kilometres of water and storm water deep utilities have been installed.
• Approximately 45 kilometres of electrical conduit will be installed.
• 12,000 Tonnes of reinforcing steel will be installed. This is equivalent to about 30 747 airplanes.
• Concrete work on the structure itself began with the installation of footings followed by forming and casting of the tunnel walls and roof. The first concrete pour for the tunnel walls and roof took place on February 24, 2012. A total of 50 concrete sections will be poured.
• Each tunnel section requires 850 cubic metres of concrete which takes 80 trucks to deliver in a 12-hour period.

Current Calgary Transit service to/from airport
Calgary Transit provides bus service (route 300) to/from the downtown core to the airport terminal, route 100 to/from the McKnight-Westwinds Ctrain station, as well as route 430.

- Posted by Daorcey from Mayor Nenshi's team