A new passenger terminal and associated infrastructure has been designed for 2 million passenger movements per year and to provide for the expansion of the airport well into the 21st century.
The structure consists of a reinforced concrete frame on three levels with a distinctive tubular steel pyramid roof. There is a 3000 sq.m basement to house the extensive air conditioning plant for the building. The terminal building is founded on a sloping strata so that part of the foundations bear directly on the underlying limestone and are partly supported by steel piles driven into the bedrock. The limestone strata is extremely variable with major fissures and solution features which required innovative foundations.
The concrete frame is 108m by 72m and was designed to eliminate the need for expansion joints by minimising the restraints to thermal and shrinkage movement. The first floor is a 350mm thick reinforced concrete flat slab that supports the mezzanine floor and accommodates the major services openings while minimising the construction depth.
The tubular steel roof is modular to facilitate the construction. The roof and peripheral façade steelwork was designed to mitigate the effect of a bomb blast. Externally, there is a two-level access road for passengers and baggage handling together with associated retaining structures. The civil engineering design included the co-ordination of existing with the proposed external services and the integration of hard and soft landscaping with external works.