Heathrow terminal 2 pumping chamber

After more than 60 years of operation, Heathrow’s Terminal 2 is being demolished and replaced with a brand new building. The new £2.2 billion terminal will be the eventual home of Star Alliance airlines and will provide an estimated 20 million passengers a year with a spacious and modern airport facility.

The development of Terminal 2 is part of a £4.8 billion investment across the whole airport and will involve the demolition of the Queens Building and old Terminal 2 building to create the space for the new facility.

Part of the development includes building nine new aircraft stands, a third of which will be configured to accommodate the new generation of aircraft such as the A380 Airbus.

VGC was engaged by main contractor Ferrovial to build a ten metre diameter concrete chamber in one of the aircraft stands to accommodate pumping equipment to empty aircraft septic tanks. The method adopted by VGC was to construct a reinforced segmental ring and then by excavating material within, progressively sink the shaft adding further segments as necessary until the full depth of seven metres was reached. On completion of the shaft, VGC constructed a concrete slab at the bottom of the shaft and a cover slab at ground level.

This contract at London’s Heathrow Airport demonstrates VGC’s capability to undertake specialist civil engineering works in an airport environment.