Nede's Notes

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...

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...