UK Parliament votes for third runway expansion of Heathrow Airport

On 25 June the UK Parliament voted by 415 votes to 119 to give the go-ahead to construction of a third runway at Heathrow airport near London. The expansion of Heathrow will be one of the biggest construction projects in Europe. The Government believes it will boost the British economy for future generations, create over 75,000 local jobs and an additional 180,000 jobs nationwide.

Following a public consultation and a planning inquiry the project could be completed as early as 2025. It will open-up Heathrow to hundreds of thousands of more flights a year and increase Heathrow’s capacity from around 76m passengers to 130m passengers a year.

The project involves the construction of the first full-length runway in the south-east of England since the second world war. It will be built to the north-west of the existing airport perimeter and will cost around £18bn. In addition, there will be a new sixth terminal built and Terminal 2 will be extended to create a Central Terminal Area.

Heathrow has been operating at 98% capacity for over a decade. The expansion could bring up to 40 new long-haul destinations for passengers and businesses. New domestic routes are also expected to be added. The public transport network will be integrated with the airport and the cargo facilities will be significantly upgraded and capacity increased.

Eland Cables is an airport cables specialist, supplying projects around the world. When Terminal 5 at Heathrow was constructed, Eland Cables supplied primary and secondary circuit airfield lighting cables. These were for lighting systems alongside runways, taxiways and the new terminal.

Our technical team worked with contractors and specifiers to identify the correct airfield lighting cable to meet regulatory bodies and application requirements. Full technical specifications and independent test reports were submitted in support of the proposed cable.

Eland Cables also supplied ground power unit cables for the critical link to aircraft on the ground. 400Hz extra-flexible orange ground support cable was selected to provide the link to GPUs in the aircraft bays.

All cables were delivered according to a challenging and precise delivery schedule to comply with the site's logistical requirements.