Walvis Airport upgrade progressing well
The rehabilitation and upgrading of the Walvis Bay Airport is progressing well, according to the Acting Strategic Executive: Projects, IT & Engineering Services at the Namibia Airport Company (NAC) Courage Silombela.
The airports company is busy with upgrading the airport’s infrastructure, starting with the runway projected to cost N$202 million and the rehabilitation of the apron whose value is yet to be confirmed.
He said,“the upgrading of the terminal building is valued at N$95 million. We are going to install a polymer boundary fence, which is the first of its kind in Namibia, as we could not put a normal fence due to the weather conditions experienced at the coast. Furthermore we are also installing state of the art x ray scanners and metal detectors at seven airports Walvis Bay included, and that being a separate project from the upgrades.”
“When looking at the terminal building, we can report that the Engineering Business Unit is looking at coordinating the activities on the critical path to prevent unwarranted delays. We need to ensure that all the affected services, cables, ducts, and sleeves that need to be installed before the surface concrete bed are laid, are checked and they are working. A meeting held in December 2014 revealed that these activities where on the critical path as per the construction programme. One of the major activities is the installation of the Flight Information Display Systems. We envisage completion of the project by July 2015,” he added.
He however said that they are still critically scrutinizing the preliminary designs for comments on the apron before an approval can be given. “The process is now at an advanced stage and we will soon be looking out on tenders for construction,” Silombela said.
“We look forward to the completion of these projects,our strategic goal is to have safe and secure Airports. Upgrades, supported by timely maintenance programmes will soon be implemented as we are tirelessly putting systems in place to achieve most of our goals.” Silombela said.
