• The African Aviation Tribune •: ■ CONGO (KINSHASA): (Pics) N'djili Airport Runway 06/24 rehabilitation nearing completion.

Kinshasa's N'Djili International Airport's runway 06/24 refurbishment.

Kinshasa's N'Djili International Airport's runway 06/24 refurbishment is nearing completion, after more than 58 years of neglect, mismanagement and successive wars left it seriously damaged (cracks, rot, potholes, subsidence, reduced exploitable length), thereby making landing and takeoffs both difficult and dangerous.

Landing at N'djili in the past, a very bumpy experience

Background

According to the ICAO, over 50% of plane crashes in Africa occur in DRC. An average of 229 incidents/accidents were recorded in Congo (roughly 22 each year) between 2000 and 2009, claiming 296 lives; 60% of incidents/accidents are caused by decrepit infrastructure, obsolete and insufficient air navigation and communication equipment; 30% are attributable to poor calibre aircraft inspectors and crew; whilst 10% are due to human error.

Owing to its vast size, the airplane still remains the preferred mode of transportation for food aid to remote areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, despite the political insecurity that still prevails in vast tracts of the country.

Against this backdrop, the DRC Government, through the Régie des Voies Aériennes (RVA), a public corporation responsible for the management of Congolese airports and air navigation safety, prepared a comprehensive programme in early 2009 for the rehabilitation and development of airport infrastructure and air navigation equipment for the period 2010-2015.

The overall programme called for an investment of USD642million.

The projects within this framework include:

The implementation of Phase I of the Communication, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) Plan financed by the World Bank to the tune of USD5 million,
The partial execution, with resources from the Infrastructure Development Fund (IDEF), of works on the rehabilitation of the runway as well as the construction of the air terminal of the Kinshasa/N’Djili Airport for USD54 million.

Additional financing has been requested from private banks, the African Development Bank’s private sector window and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).

Finances

The Congolese Government made a request to the African Development Bank’s Private Sector Department, the DBSA and other private banks, including Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP), to finance the project to rehabilitate the infrastructure of Kinshasa/N’djili Airport (runway and air terminal) to the tune of USD185million. The justification for the AfDB’s involvement is strongly linked to the implementation of PPSA (the Priority Air Safety Project), as it will help to enhance the RVA’s financial viability by ensuring that infrastructure and air navigation equipment comply with international standards.

The French Development Agency (AFD) contributed to financing studies on the improvement of the Ndjili Airport runway 06/24 and development of a financial model for the RVA to the tune of nearly USD880'000 (EUR700'000).

Source [African Development Bank]

Contractors

For this project, Aéroports de Paris Ingénierie performed visual inspections of the runway in order to produce a site inventory and to define the requirements for the subsequent geotechnical tests. ADPI was also in charge of emergency works to ensure that the platform remained operational. ADPI also performed assistance in the call for tenders regarding the extensive reinforcement operations.

Chinese contractor's Sinohydro were awarded the USD65million contract.

Specifications

Runway: 06/24
Length: Reduced from original 4'200m to 3'600m
Width: 60m
Lighting: Runway 24 threshold: CAT 2, Runway 06: CAT 1 markup threshold 06;