Heathrow's T5 takes shape

By Richard Holliday, Evening Standard

Last updated at 12:08 11 March 2004


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Cranes loom as T5 takes shape

The construction site of the new £4 billion Terminal 5 at Heathrow is the biggest in Europe, where a forest of giant cranes and an army of 4,500 architects, surveyors, engineers, electricians, craftsmen and labourers is working around the clock, seven days a week towards the completion of the first phase of the terminal in 2008, with the second phase due for handover in 2011.

But the project is such a massive undertaking, involving an infrastructure including rail extensions, road tunnels and the diversion of two rivers; a new control tower, two satellites with stands for 110 aircraft and a 40,000-space multi-storey car park, that the use of a couple more cranes is probably a necessity.

After a 10-year debate - and the longest public inquiry in British history - work on the terminal began in the summer of 2002.

British Airports Authority says that, 20 months on, the contract remains on target and on budget.

Construction director Andrew Wolstenholme said: 'A third of this mammoth programme of works is already complete, and this year we'll see the terminal building rise from the ground.'

When the terminal - designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership - is finished, British Airways will move its entire Heathrow operation there.

Colossus in the making:T5 facts and figures

 

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  • About 50,000 people will be involved in the building of T5

  • Staff on site include 1,900 surveyors, engineers, steel fixers and labourers; 160 concreters; 270 earthmovers; 160 tunnellers; 100 electricians and 60 steel erectors

  • The terminal was approved by the Government in November 2001 after the longest public inquiry in British history (46 months)

  • The site is spread over 260 hectares - the same size as Hyde Park

  • The terminal building is almost a quarter of a mile long

  • The new 87-metre control tower will be the tallest in the UK

  • Around 450 trees and 2,000 shrub trees will be planted to improve the visual impact of the terminal

  • 15,000 cubic metres of concrete will be poured each week at the site during the peak of the construction and a total of 80,000 tonnes of structural steel will used

  • 47 aircraft stands will be built as part of T5 (phase 1). More than a dozen will cater for the new Airbus A380, which comes into service in 2006. A further 60 will gain access when phase two is complete

  • The terminal will have the capacity to serve at least 30 million passengers a year, taking the number of people Heathrow in total will serve to about 90 million each year

  • The terminal will have 175 lifts and 131 escalators

  • 18 kilometres of conveyor belts will be installed to move baggage

  • 13.5km of new road and rail tunnels will be built to serve the terminal

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