London City Airport Expansion

We are expanding the land surrounding London City Airport, making way for a new taxiway, new aircraft stands and new terminal buildings.

This £480m project will significantly change London City Airport, with more flights, improved facilities, and more space for passengers. It will allow annual passengers to grow from 4.5 million to 6.5 million.

Much of the work can only be done at night, so we’ve constructed a bespoke barge to accommodate night shifts, called the PPU. The beams are placed near the runway so that they don’t affect the aircraft taking off and landing.

We needed a team with expert knowledge of marine works, so we enlisted the help of BAM International, one of Royal BAM's operating companies, who have extensive experience in this area. Our Geotechnical team have also played an important part, being instrumental in the soil excavations.

Digital Construction

Our customer's designer issued design revisions of the marine piling and decking during the construction phase. We received the design models and added the information to installed and constructed elements, such as:

• Installation dates
• QR code references
• Confirmed type design
• BAM Nuttall location codes for detailed 4D and data management
• Sectional completion codes for 4D management

In the first iteration of the design model, this information was added manually. However, this was time consuming and inefficient. As an alternative we used the Dynamo scripting tool to automate this task using embedded data within the models.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering And Maths) In Aviation Day

Alongside this project, we worked with London City Airport to organise a STEM in Aviation Day. We invited young learners to explore new technologies and learn about the science behind aviation.

We ran 4 sessions showcasing civil engineering and the technologies we use for 400 students, aged 14-15. This is the third year that the event has run and we were the only contractor taking part. We were assisted with practical, hands-on demonstrations by Ali of Iotic Labs and Maria from Mobilus Labs.