JOB REPORT

1,008 cutting tools cut costs.

Micro fine milling at Tegel Airport, Germany

Berlin Tegel Airport is the most heavily frequented airport of Germany’s capital city, counting some 13 million passengers per year. Aircraft take off and land at time intervals of between 2 and 3 minutes. This busy air traffic schedule was leaving its marks: cracking and blistering had occurred on the 3,023 m long and 60 m wide runway North. The airport operators needed to take corrective action quickly to prevent these damages from propagating on the surface or into the deeper layers.

It was not possible to mill off the damaged area – totalling 5,000 m² – in one single operation, because the entire runway was coated with an anti-skid layer that needed to be disposed of as hazardous waste. The first part of the operation was carried out by a W 2000 cold milling machine equipped with a special micro fine milling drum. The 2 m wide micro fine milling drum, which is fitted with 1,008 cutting tools, removed the anti-skid layer at a depth of 4 mm. The low milling depth minimized costs for disposing of the special anti-skid layer.

A W 1200 F cold milling machine from Wirtgen was used for milling off the underlying, now uncovered asphalt surface course at a depth of 5 cm. Placing the new asphalt surface course and the new anti-skid layer on top of the milled surface posed no problem at all.