Hong Kong Airport

Built on reclaimed land on the island of Chek Lap Kok, the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) serves as a gateway for destinations in greater China, Asia, and the world.  The airport is the world’s busiest cargo gateway and one of the world’s busiest passenger airports. More than 100 airlines operate flights from HKG to over 1800 cities across the globe.  To accommodate long-term air traffic growth, HKIA is expanding to a three-runway system. The mega-project, one of the largest infrastructure projects in the history of Hong Kong, began with the reclamation of 650 hectares (approximately 2.5 square miles) of land from the sea north of the existing airport.  

Over the past few years, NCAT has played a role in the design and performance testing of the airport’s new airfield pavements. In late 2020, NCAT began a relationship with Hong Kong-based construction company SPR JV to provide asphalt mix designs and performance testing for the addition of the new 3,800-meter runway, supporting taxiways and aprons.  

SPR JV asked NCAT to perform aggregate and binder testing on the materials sent from Hong Kong and to develop mix designs for the surface and base layers. After the two mix designs were developed, SPR JV asked NCAT for performance testing on the two mix designs. Tensile strength ratio, Hamburg wheel track, beam fatigue, dynamic modulus, and flow number were all performed on the mix designs. Both of the designs passed the performance test criteria in all cases and the mixtures were used for the new runway, taxiway, and aprons. The new runway began aircraft operations in June 2022.  

Another phase of the project then began to reconfigure the middle runway. In December 2022, SPR JV again contacted NCAT to provide mix design verifications for three additional 75-blow Marshall mix design verifications, along with aggregate gradations and binder properties. NCAT’s test results were approved and accepted by SPR JV, and used to ensure the asphalt mixtures are suitable for the high demands of the HKIA airfield pavements.  

The connection with HKIA was made possible with the help of Ken Kandhal. Ken was an assistant director for NCAT for twenty years from 1988 until his retirement in 2008. Ken is well respected throughout the asphalt world and is well known as an expert on asphalt materials. Ken still works as a consultant. SPR JV reached out to Ken for help with their airport asphalt mix designs. Ken asked NCAT to help SPR JV with the Hong Kong International Airport mix designs. 

NCAT provides mix design verifications for airports in the US and other countries. For help with airport mix designs or testing for airport mixes, please contact Jason Moore. 

For more information about this research, contact Jason Moore.