SHETLAND Islands Council has commenced work on a £1.3 million project to deliver vital improvement works at Tingwall Airport near the village of Gott.
The airport is an important hub for inter-island flights, offering routes to the likes of Foula and Fair Isle. The work comes due to a pressing need to improve the integrity of the airport’s runway, which has deteriorated in recent years, resulting in an increasing need for maintenance.
The local authority’s road asset and network management team will undertake resurfacing works, which are anticipated to last around a month – with the long days on Shetland allowing for the work to progress into the early evening with potential for earlier starts should any issues crop up.
Key to the delivery of the initiative is the council’s self-sufficiency, which executive manager of roads, Neil Hutcheson, told Project Scotland is vital ‘in all walks of life’ in Shetland – with the works set to be carried out largely by local authority staff and machinery.
“We’re at the end of the line as far as supply goes,” Neil continued. “We find the works we do in-house are significantly less expensive than when we get contractors hired in, especially if it’s something specialist and they’re having to come from the mainland.
“At the moment, because the Shetland construction market is booming, it’s quite expensive to hire anybody in, so it’s fortunate that we do have in-house capabilities.”
The project doesn’t require any cold milling or planing, and instead just a regulating layer of a nominal depth of 60ml with a 40ml wearing course on top. The council has conducted tests on a section of recently resurfaced Class A road to ensure the new airport specs pass the Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) skid test.
“The timeframe is important because the community is relying on this service coming back in June, but there is quite a lot of legislation,” Neil added. “We did the skid test on a Class A section of road using the same material we’re using at the airport, and it passed without any issues – so we’re fairly confident that’ll be fine.”
Around 3,500 tonnes of asphalt will be laid on the 805m-long main runway and apron, with it being sourced from the council-run Scord Quarry, which is also the only such facility in Shetland to have a batching plant.
Council-owned six and eight-wheeler trucks will be used to transport the materials.
“Given the location of Scord Quarry, it’s quite nearby to the airport, (so) it might be enough,” Neil said. “But if not, we have local contractors in the likes of EMN Plant, Tulloch Developments, and CW Johnson Plant – they’re always available for the hire in of trucks, if need be.”
The council has an extensive range of in-house plant machinery, ranging from JCB excavators to Dynapac compaction and paving machines, as well as pick-ups, cold milling machinery, pneumatic rollers, and various bits of small plant.
“It’s maybe unusual for a local authority to have so much in-house, but we find it to be more cost-effective to actually purchase our own plant than to hire,” Neil added, before telling of the vast council garage used to house and maintain the machinery. “We’ve trained up our own staff year after year to run and deliver that programme (of plant).”
Despite the raft of ongoing projects in Shetland, and the subsequent opportunities available, Neil revealed that the island is still facing the same skills shortages felt nationwide. However, he added that Shetland boasts a range of specialist contractors.
“It seems to be something that people are less interested in,” he added. “We have our apprentices and we’re planning on getting a few more hired in, but it takes time to train them – it’s a bit of a commitment from our existing staff, but it’s certainly something we’re going to do.”
Work is now underway on the Tingwall Airport resurfacing project, with it hoped to be completed on May 30.
