Willemen Infra, together with Aertssen Group - commissioned by the Airport Development Company (LOM) - provided a complete renovation of the runway of the airport in Deurne. New sewers and drainage were also provided. As the airport has only one runway, the renovation had to be carried out in a very short period of time.

Between 19 September and 25 October, the Deurne airport was closed for major infrastructure works. The runway had not had structural maintenance for over 40 years. A thorough renovation was needed to ensure the safety of air traffic in the future. In addition, the difference in height at the transition between the runway and the runway strip was also eliminated. The old asphalt was scraped off and sewers, concealed gutters and cabling were removed. Following this, reconstruction work was then immediately started.

First, the old asphalt pavement was milled and then 25 cranes went to work breaking open the existing sewers. The runway received at least 1 to locally 3 new sub-layers of asphalt. In it, the secondary lighting of the runway wiring was cut in. The new top layer of the 45m-wide track had to be asphalted in one go and without seams. We drove six finishers in a row to achieve this. The composition of the 27,000 tonnes of asphalt needed for the renovation, produced in three of our asphalt plants, had to be identical. This is certainly not an everyday operation.

In addition, the track also received stormwater drainage from concealed gutters and sewers directing rainwater to a buffer basin. No less than 4.5 km of sewers and 3 km of concealed gutters were processed for this purpose.

Finally, the light beacons were installed, 415 energy-efficient lamps were fitted and the markings were applied to the pavement. Via a test flight, the renovated runway was flown in. The works will extend the life of the runway by 20 years.