CIOB chartered company Farrans has won a contract to build Stansted Airport’s new skylink walkways to connect the terminal to the departure and arrival gates.
The walkways will allow the decommissioning of the airport’s tracked people-mover system, creating the space for the terminal building to be extended towards the airfield in later phases of its £1.1bn expansion.
This three-bay extension will add 16,500 sq m of space for new shops, bars and restaurants. It will make Stansted the biggest single-terminal airport in Europe.
The skylinks will have moving walkways and room for buggies for passengers with reduced mobility.
Pre-assembly of skylink sections starts this summer in a vacant hangar on the north side of the airfield. This offsite element will save time and reduce congestion and working at height.
Completed sections will be moved into place overnight on self-propelled modular transporters.
Rob Stewart, airport owner MAG’s capital delivery programme director, said Farrans helped with the design, planning and enabling phases of the skylinks project.
“We now move to the construction phase of the work, where Farran’s expertise and experience of delivering airport projects in busy operational environments will be invaluable,” he said, noting the airport currently has record numbers of passengers.
Farrans’ regional director Glenn Gilmore said: “Passengers arriving to London Stansted will already be able to see that we are mobilising our site in preparation for main works to begin during this exciting period of transformation for the airport.”
He said the company’s airport experience means Stansted’s operations will continue 24/7 with minimal disruption.
