Brisbane Airport will soon commence significant runway works on its legacy runway, with some impacts to those living nearby.

Brisbane Airport - currently in the midst of a $5 billion upgrade - will be upgrading the runway thresholds at both ends of the legacy airport.

What’s happening?

Every runway has a runway threshold at either end. Runway thresholds allow aircraft to wait on the runway for clearance to take-off and depart. They also note the end of the designated runway for aircraft landing at the airport.

Given aircraft pause on these concrete slabs for periods of time, they need to be able to hold up to 560,000 kilograms. This is the equivalent of a fully-laden Airbus A380, waiting to depart.

At Brisbane Airport, these thresholds are made up of 18 aging concrete slabs and all of them need to be replaced.

This will be done between the 24th June and September 2024, weather permitting. Brisbane Airport says the timing of the change is deliberate, as it should be drier during the winter months.

Brisbane Airport says it will complete the works one end at a time to avoid impacts to local residents and those flying.

Once poured, the concrete takes approximately 28 days to cure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwizg6it45k

What are the impacts to those flying out of Brisbane Airport?

Fortunately Brisbane now has two runways, so the impacts to those flying out of the airport are minimal.

During the works the legacy runway will continue to remain open, but will be operating at a shorter length. It will be reduced from 3.5km to 2.7km. This means some flights - primarily international flights using wide-bodied aircraft - will need to depart from the legacy runway instead. This includes aircraft such as the Airbus A350, Boeing 777 and Airbus A380.

Brisbane Airport suggest around 30 flights per day will be moved. Around half a dozen of these will be between the critical hours of 10pm and 6am.

What are the impacts to nearby residents?

Brisbane Airport says that it’ll do its best to minimise impacts on nearby residents. Those who live nearby can find out more from the airport at bne.com.au/runway.

Additional marketing will run in the lead up to the closure. This will ensure residents are well aware of the additional flights over their homes well before the works commence.

Are there any other runway works coming soon?

The legacy runway was last re-surfaced in 2016. Brisbane Airport says that it’ll need to resurfaced “at some point in the future”, but hasn’t provided any estimate on when that might be as yet.