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Week 16 - My last week

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My last week started with the seventh wettest day in the previous thirty years, with 157.4mm of rainfall over 24 hours. But in a couple of hours, after it stopped raining, everything had dried out and looked normal again. It certainly put paid to any paving happening as the stockpiles were saturated. We use this sophisticated 3D model to track progress. Made by the TuSRAP Interns using paper and monopoly houses & hotels During the rest of the week, we only got two shifts of runway asphalted due to further rain, leaving a little over half to do next year. Saturday was a tidy-up day, and we prepared everything for the Christmas break. Last Saturday, a small Piper Navajo Chieftain DQ-LIA arrived as a medivac plane for the Google Cable Project.  As we still occupied the old apron, the alternative parking area for planes, I suggested the Piper could park in front of the Air Traffic Control building as we had done our asphalt trial there. The levels were all good for pushing a light ...
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Week 15 - ROC Presidential visit and a fishing trip

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The southern end of Funafuti Atoll. Note the western islets through the gap. The weeks leading up to Wednesday, 4-Dec, were busy for Tuvalu residents and Government employees as they cleaned up a lot of the untidiness around the island's central, more populated parts. They gave the road markings a going over and pruned all the shrubs and bushes along the three main roads, including all the crossroads. They mowed the grass along the runway edges and cut the road verges with multiple line trimmers. Even the viewing platform got a fresh cost of paint. All this for Mr Lai Cheng-ti, President of the Republic of China's (Taiwan) visit. We had earlier discussed the logistics of this with the local Ambassador, Andrew Lin because there were to be two jets flying in. This was an issue as there was only one recognised parking space, and we had already claimed it with about 1,500 tonnes of asphalt aggregate. Ambassador Andrew Lin with 'Love from Taiwan" chequebook Due to the jet b...
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Week 14 - Asphalt Works continue & Demobilisation Starts

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We had a good spell of fine weather, allowing us to complete nearly a third of the runway resurfacing. The design calls for the removal of the existing chip-sealed top surface. We use a milling machine that controls the depth and maintains a constant level of approx 30mm. The "millings" are spread on a dirt track parallel to the runway near the work area. This provides us with an easily accessible dump site for a waste product. The upside of the millings is that they are spread and compacted to form a reasonably surfaced road, which means vehicles don't have to travel along the runway. Another unscheduled flight N349CL Cessna 700 Citation Longitude Once the surface is cleaned off and rolled, a tack coat of emulsion is sprayed on, and a light coating of the chip is placed. This provides a binding layer for the asphalt to the basecourse layer below. Once the chip surface is rolled, the paving machine places a "mat" of asphalt approximately 30mm thick. A fabric mes...
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Location: Vaiaku, Tuvalu
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Week 13 - Asphalt works start

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Finally, the paving operation was able to commence work this week, but first, we had to pass a production trial. This proved the mix design worked and complied with the specifications. Our on-site lab conducted quality tests, and all was well. Now that we had made some asphalt, we agreed to put it to good use when surfacing the track from the fire station to the runway. Following the trial, we had two days of heavy rainfall, which affected the sand stockpile and hindered production. We elected to just mill and asphalt the widened turning areas at each end of the runway so that we weren't tampering with the normal runway surface in case of any production issues. Both turning areas got asphalted at the end of this week, so we are ready to launch into full runway resurfacing starting tomorrow. We were delayed starting on Friday as an extra unscheduled flight was organised for an advance party preparing for the President of Taiwan's visit on 4 Dec. A Bombardier BD700 jet that seats...
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