VIDEO | Airport overhaul reaches one-year landmark
Manchester Airport has released new footage of its £1bn transformation programme, having spent 12 months on site.
The project will see Terminal 2’s capacity increased by 150%, making it the focal point of the airport’s operations. Laing O’Rourke is the main contractor.
More than 70% of the steelwork has been erected on the terminal extension at a project that currently has 1,200 people working on site, which will reach 1,500 in early 2019.
Andrew Cowan, chief executive of Manchester Airport, said: “This is the largest investment ever made in the airport and will transform the experience for our passengers and airlines alike.
“I’m excited to see the first pier open to passengers in just eight months’ time and to press ahead with the rest of the scheme, especially the new terminal building, which is on course to be open to passengers by mid-2020.”
Timelapse footage released by the airport shows the scale of change at the site:
Work has also been progressing on the airfield, where Galliford Try is in charge. In the first phase of airfield works, the apron has been extended to the west; including new taxiways and apron reconfiguration to allow the pier and additional aircraft stands to be used.
The second phase, which began in June, involves a new taxiway, increasing the capacity of existing taxiways, and new aircraft stands as the airfield is reconfigured to align with the redeveloped Terminal 2. The work is due to be completed by July 2020.
Beyond the extension, a further new pier is scheduled to open in 2022 and the refurbishment of the existing Terminal 2 building will also be completed that year.
Terminal 1 is currently scheduled to close by 2023 with the third pier set to open in 2024. Once completed, Terminal 2 will have capacity to handle over 35m passengers per year.
Bryan Glass, Laing O’Rourke project director, said: “We’re on schedule to deliver the transformation of Terminal 2 and that certainty of delivery has been driven by our offsite construction approach, with elements of the project manufactured offsite and assembled by our expert project team and technicians.
“There’s no room for complacency of course, and our team is focused on the next milestone – handover of the first pier in January 2019.”
Along with the timelapse video, the airport has issued a video tour of the site as it stands:
They should do a time lapse one showing the ever growing chaos that greets its customers thanks to its euphemistically termed “forecourt management” system. It’s an embarrassment for the Northen Powerhouse.
By A Developer
It’s a shame MAPLC don’t focus on improving their current offer which is very poor ! Travelling through Manchester Airport a poor experience with terrible customer service and bad first impression for visitors !
By Passenger
Worst airport in the world!!!1
By manc
Really bad experience every time – no consideration to the chaos caused to traffic at T1 plus the high cost of providing delivery of the very passengers who have to use the drop off. No more having a 2 minute free drop off by family or taxi. No alternative so we are just victims of the airport money grabbing culture.
By Passenger
I think of the airport as a reflection of living the city as a whole: ugly, unwelcoming, but cheaper enough and easier enough than London. Liverpool is cheaper still and much friendlier, but less options. Lump for Manchester.
Like city, like airport.
By Macca Airport