Due for completion on 27 March 2008, the £4.3bn terminal will be the UK’s largest free-standing building, with a 68,000 sq metre roof covering 142 shops and 25 restaurants, including a 1,572 sq metre Harrods department store. The new terminal is expected to handle 30 million passengers a year when it opens.
In addition to the main terminal building, Terminal 5 also consists of two satellite buildings (the second of which will be completed by 2010), 60 aircraft stands, a new air traffic control tower, a 4,000 space multi storey car park, the creation of a new spur road from the M25, a 600 bed hotel, the diversion of two rivers and over 13 kilometres of bored tunnel, including extensions to the Heathrow Express and Piccadilly Line services.
The construction has posed some unique challenges, not least the close proximity of the world’s most heavily utilised runways to the north and south of the site and Europe’s busiest motorway interchange (M25/M4) to the west.
The solution has been to utilise methods used in factory-based manufacturing so that materials are brought onto site only when the site is ready to receive them. This ‘just-in-time’ strategy reduces on-site risk and costs. It is supported by the extensive use of prefabrication and pre-assembled components and is facilitated through the use of two consolidation centres close to the main site.
Unlike certain other high profile construction projects in the UK, Terminal 5 is on time and on budget, with 90% of the work already complete ready for the opening early next year.
“T5 is already a testament to the skill and hard work of the thousands of people, including architects, planners, construction workers, airport and airline staff, who have together made the building happen,” explains Tony Douglas, Chief Executive Officer of BAA Heathrow.
“68 million passengers will fly through Heathrow this year in aging terminal facilities designed to accommodate around 45 million. When T5 opens and 30 million passengers move out of existing terminals, for the first time we will have space to breath in the central terminal area and have a once in a lifetime opportunity to redevelop the rest of the airport and bring it up to a comparable standard to T5.”
Airside Road Tunnel
The Airside Road Tunnel (ART) is a crucial link between Terminal 5 and Terminals 1, 2 and 3. The project was completed on 1 March 2005 on schedule and £6m under budget.
Britain’s seventh longest road tunnel, it consists of two 8.1m diameter bores which were tunnelled using a specially constructed Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM).
The ART is sandwiched between a layer of water-bearing gravels and a layer of London Clay. The specialist TBM had to adapt to the varying gradients encountered throughout the tunnel’s curved route and continue to operate should it have encountered the water-bearing gravel layer.
Highly sophisticated safety and security systems have been installed in the completed tunnel to ensure a swift response in the event of an emergency. There are a total of 48 jet fans in place for ventilation purposes and eight pollution monitors. Detectors have also been put in to monitor visibility – a key indicator of any changes in the tunnel’s atmosphere.
When T5 opens in 2008 the ART may see up to 3,000 vehicles travel through it daily.
Twin River Diversion Scheme
The Duke of Northumberland’s and Longford River – collectively referred to as the ‘Twin Rivers’ – originally ran through the middle of the T5 site and a condition of the public inquiry required that they be diverted around the perimeter of the T5 campus.
The priority for this project was to develop a scheme that conveyed the peak flows in each river while enhancing the ecological value of the existing rivers.
The newly built river channels took 18 months to construct, measuring 8m wide by 3km long.
A number of in-channel enhancements have been provided to improve the ecology of the rivers. These include lining the channels with reclaimed timber and the use of stone-filled gabion baskets to provide new habitats for fish, plants and macro-invertebrates.
Before the existing rivers diverted, fish including dace, roach, pike, perch and chubb were captured and transferred to the nearby River Colne upstream of the new channels. Riverbed silt and gravels rich in macro invertebrates such as shrimp, nymphs and snails and over 1,000 freshwater mussels were also translocated from the old rivers into the new channel beds.
Air traffic control tower
Heathrow’s new 87m tall air traffic control tower had to be assembled in a way which minimised disruption to airport operations. The top 27m portion of the tower – including the visual control room – was constructed and partially fitted-out on a site near Terminal 4. This 900-tonne section was then moved, almost 2km across the southern runway and airfield to its final position adjacent to Terminal 3.
Between January and March 2005, six steel mast sections were slotted under the cab to raise it to its full height – more than double that of the existing control tower.
Designed by Richard Rogers Partnership, the £50 million air traffic control tower will feature the latest technology and offer Heathrow’s controllers a 360 degree cone of vision - the best viewing capability of any control tower in the world, when it becomes operational in 2006.