Week 14 - Asphalt Works continue & Demobilisation Starts

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 mesh, "Hatelit," is placed over the bottom layer, and then a 40mm top layer of asphalt is placed and rolled.

The milling and first layer are done on the same shift. Any line marking removed is painted back overnight. In the next shift, the hatelit and top layer are placed, along with any line marking. Ultimately, the entire runway line marking is re-painted three times; the first layer, the second layer, and then a final paint with the inclusion of glass beads to aid in the reflectiveness of the paint.

Local sports have adapted to us using a third of the runway as a haul road

While all this seems a bit complicated, it's nothing compared to the logistics and process involved with supplying the asphalt to the paver. From barging aggregate from Fiji to ordering bitumen from Switzerland, there have been a lot of people and many steps taken to have everything in place. Our plant equipment came from the last job at Nuie and any new items from New Zealand.


Night view of the asphalt plant

Watch as the loader primes the asphalt plant aggregate mixing bins (PAP = sand)

and 5-7mm chip

I'm not part of the paving operation, but I've been tasked with organising the removal or demobilisation of everything off the island. The first job is returning the empty bitumen tank containers. These are known as bitutainers. This utilises our swing lift container truck, and lately, we've been roped in to swap out empty for full bitutainers at the plant. The plant is set up with four bitutainers in a 2 x 2 arrangement, each holding 20 t of bitumen.  Two are being heated while one is being pumped out, and one is replaced. Each bitutainer has provision for electrical heating rods to be inserted into tubes in the bottom. The rods heat the bitumen to 160 deg C so that it flows easily.

While all this sounds relatively simple, the swing lifter can only lift from the driver's side and the bitutainers have the tube ends facing the middle. So that means the bitutainer has to be loaded on the truck in the correct orientation. Last night we didn't get it right and had to go out on the runway to unload, turn the truck around and then reload.

Turning the container around on the truck!

While I was at the port checking on our next delivery, I noticed the Police patrol boat Te Mataili III 803. This boat was gifted to Tuvalu by Australia and was a replacement for the Te Mataili II 802 launched in 2019 which was severely damaged by cyclones in 2023 while in Vanuatu. The original Te Mataili 801 was launched in 1994 and got to the end of its design life.

Te Mataili III 803 at Funafuti Port

Front view of the Funafuti Police Station

I was out on the reclaim looking for a container when I noticed the incoming weather and couldn't resist the photo opportunity. 

In the harbour is an unknown cargo vessel which appears to be loading or unloading cargo onto other vessels which tied up alongside.
A boatload of people heading out into the lagoon and the weather


Last week, I discussed the solar power project, and this week, I visited Tafoa Pond where the UNDP has installed a floating array of solar panels.



The floating walkway out to the solar panel array

The solar panel array

Plenty of small fish!

Link to article Tafua Pond solar panel array

Link to UNDP Article on Tafua Pond Solar Panels

Bigger fish for dinner at the Filamona

This morning, I went to Christ the King Catholic Church, Teone, near the port. About 30 parishioners were present. Reverent Monsignor Eliseo Napiere joked with me about whether I came from his town, Napier!

Inside Christ the King Church of Funafuti





Location: Vaiaku, Tuvalu

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 15 - ROC Presidential visit and a fishing trip

Image
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...
Read more

Week 3 in Tuvalu

Image
This week began with the opening of Parliament at 8:00 am. While an auspicious occasion for the Government it didn’t seem to capture the local inhabitant’s interest. However, we had an excellent overview of the Police Guard of Honour. Police Officer in ceremonial uniform Preparations had been happening all the previous week with maintenance and painting of the Women’s Centre. Each morning last week the Police would practice their drill from about 6:30 am. I guess so they could be ready for normal duties at 8:00 am. His Excellency, Tofiga Vaevalu Falani, formally opened Parliament and presided over the remainder of the event. Opening of Tuvaluan Parliament by the Governor General By the time the plane arrived at 11:00 am, you couldn’t tell anything had happened, the flag pole and stand had been trucked away and the hall returned to normal use. Police Guard of Honour on Airport Apron While the island has probably, a dozen or so “ maneapa ,” (halls) to accommodate events it seems the Wome...
Read more

Week 13 - Asphalt works start

Image
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...
Read more