Background

Aim

The demand for the air travel is increasing tremendously in Melbourne. Hence, for meeting the increasing number of the passengers, the development officials of Melbourne Airport have decided to expand the airport and also build an additional fourth runway. The aim of this research paper is to study the design characteristics of the fourth runway which includes length, configuration, pavement design, as well as the width of the runway in airport of Melbourne. For studying the characteristic of the fourth runway, there is also a need to study the development plan that has been developed as a part of the expansion plan. This plan takes into consideration the local factors such as temperature, runway slope, runway condition, elevation and tail/ headwind of the runway in airport of Melbourne.  

According to the IATA (2016), more than 35.15 million travellers have travelled through the Melbourne Airport in the year 2017. As per estimations, the number of passengers will increase to 68 million by the year 2038 (BITRE 2010). In order to accommodate the increasing number of travellers, the development official of Melbourne has decided to expand the airport and construct a fourth runway which will run east-west as well as extend the existing runways that are already in use (Pfeiffer, Kougher and DeVault 2018). The construction is a part of the Runway Development Program (RDP).

With the construction process undergoing, the RDP will help to create a vacancy for jobs, grow the economy of Victoria, as well as provide the passengers more convenient experience for air travelling by reducing the aircraft landing time and departure time.

The plan of RDP is to be approved by the Commonwealth Government through a Major Development Plan (MDP) which is being developed by the Melbourne Airport. The MDP will be made available to comment for 60 days of public exhibition in the year 2018 (BITRE 2010).

The proposed length of the runway is three-kilometre long and the construction will start from 2023. The east-west runway is planned to be lengthened by the year 2027 (IATA 2016). The fourth runway will run north-south which will allow almost 100 arrivals and departures each hour from the airport.

The scope of the research paper is to study the factors that are involved in identifying the design characteristics of the runway, which include width, configuration, length as well as the pavement design for the Melbourne runway airport. All the local factors are also taken into account which involves elevation, head/tail wind, the surface condition of the runway, or the temperature condition that is required for constructing the Melbourne runway.

This research proposal is being carried out to study the detailed plan for the proposed construction of the fourth runway that will allow more arrivals and departures of flights in Melbourne airport (White et al. 2017). The proposed fourth runway will run north-south and there is also a plan for extending the third runway that is under process.

This construction is necessary for the increasing number of passengers in the Melbourne Airport and their waiting for departure and as well as arrival. The proposed runway is necessary for providing more efficient and convenient service to the travellers.

Scope

The travellers coming to the airport and going out of the airport will get mostly benefitted with the construction of the fourth runway in the airport. The passengers will not have to wait for the landing or will not have to wait for departure for long periods of time. The runway presently allows 50 take-offs and arrivals per hour, but with the construction of the fourth runway and the extension of the third runway, there will be almost 100 take-offs and arrivals per hour in the airport.

The research questions are stated below:

• What are the necessities to build the fourth runway in Melbourne Airport?
• What is the Runway Development Program associated with the runway construction in Melbourne Airport?
• What are the factors that are needed for constructing the fourth runway in Melbourne Airport?

The proposed fourth runway will be 3000 meters long and 60 meters wide and will be constructed in South-North of the airport (Gebreegziabher and Bil 2015). Along with the construction of the fourth runway, there is also plan for the extension of the east-west runway that will be done in parallel.  The runway will be capable of handling aircraft of size A380.

There is a range of criteria that were assessed for making the decision for constructing the south-north runway in the airport (White 2016). The criteria range includes the runway that is being constructed for meeting future passenger demands, effects on the environment as well as impact on community, along with construction cost and operational requirements. The total cost for the construction process is around 500$ million (IATA 2016).

The citizens who live nearby Melbourne Airport have stated that they are worried about the scarce consultation with the proposal for acquiring the land in the Tullamarine for expanding the east-west third runway and building the fourth north-south runway. The people nearby also faces noise problems due to constant arrival and departure of flights from the airport. To mitigate the noise, contours were developed in the Melbourne Airport in the year 2013 as a part of the draft Master Plan for reflecting the fourth runway (Setyowati and Trilistyo 2017). The draft of the Master Plan was submitted to Commonwealth Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, which helped in the development of airport over next 20 years.

The most important design characteristics of the proposed runway include width, length, configuration as well as the strength of the airport from which the expanded capacity of the airport can be determined (Skybrary.aero, 2018). There is a relation between the runway length and the weight of the flight. The length of the runway is used to determine many factors from including the aircraft types it will support and the range that an aircraft can fly. Long runway has effective competitive advantage compared to other runways of smaller size. The length of the airport also persuades airlines as longer runway helps to take off at the lower trust that helps to save the fuel of the aircraft. There are two types of aircraft that are available-

• Critical Aircraft that includes the heaviest as well as the longest range of aircrafts
• Common Aircraft that includes light jets, private planes and other small and medium size aircrafts

By considering all the factors that are stated above, the designers who construct the runway must design them according to the regulations and the guidance materials that are issued by the state authority or mandated by other international institutions which include IATA or ICOA. There are many regulatory as well as standards used for developing the new Melbourne runway.

Significance

The runway that will be built must be long enough so that they can provide safe landing as well as safe take-offs for the conventional aircrafts as well as the critical aircrafts. With the performance characteristics of aircraft and the moving mass, the length of the runway is also affected by the environmental conditions, which include temperature, runway condition, runway gradient, airport elevation and others. The higher altitude and the higher temperature create low air density that affects the rising or landing of the aircraft (Bitre.gov.au, 2018). The elevator of the aircraft and the engine of the aircraft are directly proportional to air density. With lower air density, much longer length of the runway is required.  The wet or the dry surface of a runway will also affect runway length. When the tail wind increases, the runway length also needs to be increased as the tailwind disrupts airflow underneath and the head wing at the time of take-off or at the time of landing. The uphill increases runway length and the downhill shorten the length of the runway. With the aerodrome location, the environmental conditions are factored for determining the length of the runway (Skybrary.aero, 2018). The lengths of the wingspan and the wheel span of the outer main gear are listed in the table below.

Code Letter	Wingspan	Main gear wheel span	Type of aeroplane
A	Less than 15 m	Less than 4.5 m	PIPER PA-31/CESSNA 404 Titan
B	From 15 m and is less than 24 m	From 4.5 m and is less than 6 m	BOMBARDIER Regional Jet CRJ-200/DE HAVILLAND CANADA DHC-6
C	From 24 m and less than 36 m	From 6 m and is less than 9 m	BOEING 737-700/AIRBUS A-320/EMBRAER ERJ 190-100
D	From 36 m and less than 52 m	From 9 m and is less than 14 m	B767/AIRBUS A-310
E	From 52 m and less than 65 m	From 9 m and is less than 14 m	B777/B787 Series/A330
F	From 65 m and less than 80 m	From 14 m and is less than 16 m	BOEING 747-8/AIRBUS A-380-800

Aerodrome Reference Code

For facilitating physical characteristics of the publication, ICAO Annex 14 is used which defines the reference code of aerodrome. The ARC (Aerodrome Reference Code) inter-relates airside capacity of the aerodrome and the performance as well as the geometric characteristics of the aircraft. The ARC code consists of mainly two elements – the first is the number and the second is the letter. The number of the code mainly determines the reference of the aeroplane field length and the letter of the code consists of wingspan. The outer gear of the wheel span of aircraft is also mentioned in the letter part of the code (Skybrary.aero, 2018). The reference field length of the aeroplane indicates the minimum distance that is required for take-off at certified take-off mass, still air, sea-level conditions, standard atmospheric pressure, and zero-runway slope.

Code Number	Reference Field Length	Type of aeroplane
1	Less than 800 m	DE HAVILLAND CANADA DHC-6/PIPER PA-31
2	From 800 m and is less than 1200 m	ATR42/BOMBARDIER Dash 8 Q300
3	From 1200 m and less than 1800 m	SAAB 340/BOMBARDIER Regional Jet CRJ-200
4	From 1800 m and above	BOEING 737-700/AIRBUS A-320

The width of the runway should be sufficiently wide such that it ensures safe operation for the taking-off or landing of the aircraft. The width of the runway is mainly affected by many factors which include runway surface condition, approach speed, geometrical characteristics, human factors, and visibility. CASA (2017b) has the standards of ICAO and also requires the aerodrome operator for providing the minimum runway. The code letter and the code number are shown in the table below.

The configuration of the runway is mainly done depending on local weather conditions of where the runway is being built. The basic configurations of the runways are single runway, parallel runway, intersecting runway, open-V runway, and staggered runway. The diagram below shows the runway that is to be built in the Melbourne airport.

The research study that will be carried out in this research paper includes study of literature that will help to collect data and develop a project roadmap and design for proposed the fourth runway construction in Melbourne Airport. The data collection method that will be used for this research paper is secondary data collection method. The geometric characteristic of the fourth runway that is proposed to build are mainly discussed in this research paper. All the characteristics of the runway which involves local temperature, tail wind, and crosswind and many other such factors are collected from secondary sources that are available online. Qualitative as well as quantitative data analysis will be done that are collected from the secondary resources. The secondary research methodology deals with reviewing many online articles which are stated by different authors related to the construction process of fourth runway in Melbourne airport.

Research Question

Conclusion

This research proposal consists of the geometric characteristics of the fourth runway that will be constructed in the Melbourne airport. The proposed runway in the airport will help to accommodate more passengers as well as daily count of aircrafts arriving and departing the airport. The expanded aircraft will allow maximum take-off weight so that unconstrained and convenient service is provided to the increasing number of passengers in the airport. From the analysis done while preparing this paper, it can be concluded that there are many factors such as airport evaluation, crosswind, local temperature, the longest distance that the aircraft will flow and many other such factors that will have significant impact on the overall design of the Melbourne fourth runway. The geometric design of the runway will include considerations for the free take-off run, available take-off distance, stopping distance as well as the landing distance of the aircrafts arriving and departing the airport. This paper also suggests the pavement design of the new runway at Melbourne Airport that is included within the expansion plan of the airport.

References

Anele, O., 2016. Atmospheric lead monitoring at Moorabbin Airport, Melbourne, Australia.

Bardell, N.S. and Ashton, M.J., 2018. Some issues affecting potential stakeholder uptake of sustainable aviation fuel within Australia: a case study conducted at Darwin International Airport. Australian Journal of Mechanical Engineering, pp.1-13.

Bitre.gov.au. (2018). [online] Available at: https://bitre.gov.au/publications/2012/files/avline_2010_11.pdf [Accessed 29 Aug. 2018].

Buxton, M. and Chandu, A., 2016. When growth collides: conflict between urban and airport growth in Melbourne, Australia. Australian Planner, 53(4), pp.310-320.

Chandu, A., 2017. The world’s first purpose-built Airport City: Melbourne Airport, Tullamarine. Planning Perspectives, 32(3), pp.373-400.

Deilami, S. and White, G., 2018. Review of Reflective Cracking Mechanisms and Mitigations for Airport Pavements.

Din, S.A.M., Yahya, N.N.H.N. and Othman, R., 2017. Inhalable and Respirable Dust Metal Concentration in Existing and Construction Stage of Airport Infrastructure. Advanced Science Letters, 23(7), pp.6123-6126.

Douglas, T., Griffiths, L. and Turner, P., 2016. North growth corridor-VCE unit 3. Interaction, 44(4), p.29.

Downs, S., 2019. Use of Falling Weight Deflectometer for Airport Pavements. Transportation and Geotechniques: Materials, Sustainability and Climate, p.119.

Dunne, T. and Cotter, J., 2015. Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport Perishable Goods Facility: preliminary feasibility study.

Freestone, R. and Baker, D., 2018. Negotiating the Problem of Airport Noise: Comparative Lessons from the Australian Experience. The Political Quarterly.

Freestone, R. and Wiesel, I., 2014. The Making of an A ustralian ‘Airport City’. Geographical Research, 52(3), pp.280-295.

Fusellato, A. and Di Blasio, F.L., 2015. PPP in the Airport Infrastructure: A Case Analysis from an International Perspective. In Public Private Partnerships for Infrastructure and Business Development (pp. 133-148). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Gebreegziabher, A.N. and Bil, C., 2015. Using alternative airports for ultra short-range and high-demand scheduled domestic services. In AIAC16: 16th Australian International Aerospace Congress (p. 207). Engineers Australia.

Glasby, T., Day, J., Genrich, R. and Aldred, J., 2015. EFC geopolymer concrete aircraft pavements at Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport. Concrete, 2015, pp.1-9.

Ison, S., Merkert, R. and Mulley, C., 2014. Policy approaches to public transport at airports—Some diverging evidence from the UK and Australia. Transport Policy, 35, pp.265-274.

Li, L. and Loo, B.P., 2016. Impact analysis of airport infrastructure within a sustainability framework: Case studies on Hong Kong International Airport. International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, 10(9), pp.781-793.

Lohmann, G. and Trischler, J., 2017. Licence to build, licence to charge? Market power, pricing and the financing of airport infrastructure development in Australia. Transport Policy, 59, pp.28-37.

Lyon, D., 2018. Airport automation in Australasia: A possible way forward. Journal of Airport Management, 12(3), pp.303-313.

Masson, B., Bain, M. and Page, J., 2015. Is engine failure on the runway at takeoff the most limiting case?. In AIAC16: 16th Australian International Aerospace Congress (p. 347). Engineers Australia.

McNerney, M.T. and Bescher, E.P., 2018. Strategy for A Concrete Overlay of a Commercial Service Runway Without Daytime Closure. In International Conference on Transportation and Development (p. 88).

Merkert, R. and Ploix, B., 2014. The impact of terminal re-organisation on belly-hold freight operation chains at airports. Journal of Air Transport Management, 36, pp.78-84.

Noble, G., 2016. Rising prices, rising responsibility. Superfunds Magazine, (416), p.22.

Pasha, M.M. and Hickman, M., 2016, November. Airport Ground Accessibility: Review and Assessment. In Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF), 38th, 2016, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Pfeiffer, M.B., Kougher, J.D. and DeVault, T.L., 2018. Civil airports from a landscape perspective: A multi-scale approach with implications for reducing bird strikes. Landscape and Urban Planning, 179, pp.38-45.

Richards, M., 2017. Melbourne airport and Victoria’s transport network. Planning News, 43(2), p.12.

Skybrary.aero. (2018). ICAO Aerodrome Reference Code – SKYbrary Aviation Safety. [online] Available at: https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/ICAO_Aerodrome_Reference_Code [Accessed 29 Aug. 2018].

White, G. and Embleton, K., 2017, August. Validation of a new generation bitumen for airport asphalt. In Proceedings of the 17th Australian Asphalt Pavement Association International Flexible Pavements Conference. Australian Asphalt Pavement Association.

White, G., 2016, November. Potential causes of top-down cracking of Australian runway surfaces. In 27th ARRB Conference.

White, G., Tighe, S., Emery, S. and Yeaman, J., 2017. Developing a framework for diagnosis of shear distress in asphalt surfaces. International Journal of Pavement Engineering, 18(12), pp.1039-1051.