Escape lanes at São Paulo’s Congonhas airport to be delivered in March
The two new escape lanes for the airstrip at São Paulo’s Congonhas airport should be delivered late in March. Works started early in 2021, with costs adding up to BRL 122.5 million, paid by Brazil’s airport authority Infraero.
The project is being conducted under consortium Kigab/Conserva, which won the 2020 bid. The group is formed by Swiss Kibag Airfield Construction and mining firm Conserva de Estradas.
The lanes feature the Engineered Material Arresting System (EMAS), with concrete blocs deforming when the aircraft leaves the strip, which makes the landing gear sink into the material, boosting the plane’s capacity to slow down. Congonhas will be the first airport in Latin America to implement the system, already to be found in the US, Europe, and Asia.
To develop the project for Congonhas, Infraero ed a work group with Brazil’s aviation agency ANAC, which devised installation and maintenance criteria for the EMAS technology. Regulation included requirements adopted in the US.
