The Namibian Airports Company (NAC) says the rehabilitation and upgrading of the Walvis Bay Airport is progressing well.

Courage Silombela, acting strategic executive: projects, IT & engineering services said the NAC is busy upgrading the airport’s infrastructure, starting with the runway valued at N$202 million (approximately R202 million) according to a report by the Namibian.

Next is the apron and the  upgrade of the terminal building valued at N$95 million (approximately R95 million).

The company will also work on the installation of a polymer boundary fence at a cost of N$ 48 million (approximately R48 million), the first of its kind in Namibia, since it could not put up a normal fence due to the weather conditions at the coast.

Preventing delays

“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,” Silombela explained.

“A meeting held in December 2014 revealed that these activities were on the critical path as per the construction programme. One of the major activities is the installation of the FIDS (flight information display systems). We envisage the completion of the project by July 2015,” he added.

“Regarding the apron, we are still scrutinising the preliminary designs for comments before an approval is given, but the process is now at an advanced stage and we will soon be going out on tender for construction.” said Silombela.

Lastly, he gave feedback on the polymer fencing project, which is 58% completed to date. “The contractor is currently busy with preparation works to excavate the foundations for both the end poles, the ground beams and to connect the V-rails permanently to the end poles.” NAC envisages that the fence will be done by April 2015.

-The Namibian