Airfield World Congress 2015

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Innovative Strategies In Airfield Engineering And Asset Maintenance

The 12th Airfield World Congress took place from 30 November to 3 December 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Congress brought together international experts to focus on innovative pavement management systems and use of alternative materials for sustainable pavement design. This included case studies and reports from leading airport authorities. Effective pavement management, cost-effective and faster asset maintenance is critical not only to manage airline traffic but also ensure higher revenues for airports that delegates were representing. Here’s our overview of the days events:

Pre-Conference Site Tour: Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2

The site visit provided a detailed view on how the airport was designed through the efficient integration of new infrastructure. Delegates heard about the key engineering, technical and operational concepts used in building Asia’s cheapest and fastest built airport.

Airfield World Congress: Day One

The opening keynote speech by Mohd Zaifuddin Idris, Senior General Manager of Technical Services for Malaysia Airports examined the latest developments in airfield construction and expansion in Malaysia. Idris identified best project management practices and cost-effective asset maintenance strategies for KLIA2.

Hery Tris Cahyono, Airport Infrastructure Policy Implementation Supervisor, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Indonesia discussed the emerging regulations surrounding advanced airfield design criteria.

To follow was a case study by Dr. Bachar Hakim, Head of Pavement Design and Asset Management, Civil and Infrastructure, AECOM, UK, to show how to engineer airfields to improve the quality and performance of pavements.

Round-table discussions

As an overview, the following topics were discussed:

  1.  Innovative pavement materials: Exploring the use of alternate and sustainable materials for your airfield expansion and construction projects Manoj Tipnis, General Manager – Head Designs Roads & Runways, Larsen and Toubro Construction, India
  2. AGL: Examining the latest developments in AGL – how cost-effective and sustainable is the replacement of halogen lights by LEDs at your airfields?
  3. Pavement design: Innovative localized techniques for design of structural layers for new pavements and pavement rehabilitation led by Dr. Bachar Hakim.
  4. Project management: effective project management techniques.
    Raghu Seelamonthula, Solutions Leader – Airside Systems, Honeywell International followed this with a session on asset maintenance for busy airports.

A panel discussion around designing sustainable pavements followed, exploring the use of green, sustainable and cost-effective pavement construction materials for airfields.

The first day of the Airfield World Congress closed with a case study around developing cost effective airfield infrastructure in a demanding topography led by S Lakshminarayanan, Vice President – Maintenance, Bangalore International Airport.

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Airfield World Congress: Day 2

Day 2 of the Airfield World Congress opened with a discussion on pavement design.

Ahmad Fadzil Arshad, Senior Manager of Engineering (klia2), Malaysia Airports gave an overview, via case study, on how to navigate challenges in airfield pavement resurfacing and overlay design.

N. Venkatachalapathy led a session on ‘Best practices for Airfields Safety Pavements’.

Dieter Pade, Vice President – International Sales, Cyclone Technology spoke about the advancements in Airfield Ground Lighting (AGL).

Round-table discussions

  1. Innovative pavement materials: Exploring the use of alternate and sustainable materials for your airfield expansion and construction projects.
  2. AGL: Examining the latest developments in AGL.
  3. Pavement design: Innovative localized techniques for design of structural layers for new pavements and pavement rehabilitation.
  4. Project management: effective project management techniques to reduce overheads, meet more stringent security and safety guidelines and comply with regulatory requirements and maximise the return on high-value assets.

The Airfield World Congress ended with two case studies:

Sustainable airport pavement design from Manoj Tipnis, General Manager – Head Designs Roads & Runways, Larsen & Toubro Construction, India.

Effective prevention of runway excursions to ensure higher standards of safety from Dr Lakshmanan Ravi, Chief Operating Officer – Airports, GMR Infrastructure, India.

Post-Airfield World Conference Workshops

Three options of ground-breaking workshops attached to the conference took place the following day.

The overview of these are:

Workshop A: Developing Ideal Pavement Management Systems at the Strategic, Tactical and Operational Levels Dr. Bachar Hakim, Head of Pavement Design and Asset Management, Civil and Infrastructure, AECOM, UK.

Workshop B: Improving the Efficiency of Airfield Asset Management Planning N. Venkatachalapathy, Head-Safety & Environment Compliance, International Airport.

Workshop C: Identifying and selecting the appropriate materials for your airfield pavement construction.