THE city government will spend 6 billion yuan (US$879 million) to reclaim land from the sea for the expansion of Shenzhen International Airport.
Upon completion, the cargo and mail throughput at the airport will reach 5.4 million tons, three times the present figure, the Southern Metropolis Daily said.
The airport’s passenger handling capacity will increase by more than 70 percent to reach 36 million people a year and an additional 3,800 meters of parallel runways will be built. The expansion project is expected to meet the demands of Shenzhen’s aviation industry by 2015, the Daily report said.
Located to the west of Shenzhen International Airport, the land-reclamation project covers an area of 13.23 square kilometers and includes several different projects, such as a second runway zone and foundation treatment, embankment, flood control and drainage in the terminal zone. About 3.5 billion yuan has already been spent on the project.
The foundation treatment in the terminal zone is scheduled to be finished in February.
An official with the municipal construction affairs office said the sea-filling project is not as simple as throwing sand and gravel into the sea as some people imagine. “The requirements for foundation settlement are very high,” said the official, who was not identified by the Daily. “Take the second runway zone, for example. The foundation work must meet the requirement for the landing and taking off of giant passenger airliners such as the Airbus A380.”
Because the sludge on the sea bed is “no thicker than soybean milk,” the official said, it must be completely removed before gravel is laid.
Some 50 million cubic meters of gravel is needed for the reclamation project. The diameter of each gravel stone must be larger than 0.075 millimeters, the official said.
(Eunice Kang)