Repair works on runways and taxiways at Budapest Airport

Initial situation

With recurring need for repair works at Budapest Airport on takeoff and landing runways, as well as taxiways, repairs were made to various small and partial surfaces on existing concrete slabs.

Solution and assessment

The individual repair areas reported varying volumes, ranging from approximately 40 to a maximum of 850 litres. To address this situation, the rapid-hardening drymix mortar Concretum^® Q-REP G was used for smaller places, up to a maximum excavated volume of 200 litres, whilst for all larger excavated volumes, rapid-hardening concrete Concretum^® Q- FLASH 2/20 was used. The drymix mortar Concretum^® Q-REP G was mixed in small mixers and poured on site. Concretum^® Q-FLASH 2/20 was mixed in truck mixers on the construction site. In this way, various uncertainties concerning silo availability at the concrete plant as well as additional travel times were eliminated. Due to the short time between the purchase order and implementation, the necessary preliminary tests for modification of the formula for the aggregate and modification of the grading curve were carried out by a Concretum engineer on site. Pouring was made difficult by strong winds and the rapidly changing weather conditions, on account of which the requirements for quality and the duration of the post-treatment had to be determined accordingly. Despite this, or actually on account of these weather conditions, the purely mineral rapid-hardening concretes produced by Concretum proved to have substantial advantages relative to the commonly used resin-based repair mortars since the Concretum products are not sensitive to strongly fluctuating underground moisture.