Kildare firm had major role in Dublin's new €360m airport runway

A County Kildare contractor played a major role in the construction of Dublin Airport’s new €360m runway which was opened last week.

Civil engineer and building contractor Roadbridge, based in Naas Enterprise Park, was a main contractor for the project alongside Barcelona-based firm FCC Construcción S.A.

In 2019, the Construction Magazine listed Roadbridge in 12th place of its Top 50 Construction Industry Federation (CIF) Contractors with a turnover of over €230m.

About 300 construction jobs were created on site during the project, with hundreds more in sub-supply firms offsite.

The Dublin Airport Authority said the new runway will support the creation of 31,200 new Irish jobs and €2.2 billion in additional economic activity by 2023.

The project included the building and installation of over 300,000 square metres of new runway and taxiways, 6km of new internal airport roads, 7.5km of electrical cable and more than 2,000 new runway and taxiway lights.

The infrastructure will be capable of servicing larger long-haul aircraft, including the Boeing 747-8 and Airbus A 380-800.

The new runway is situated 1.7km north of Dublin Airport’s current main runway.

DAA offered to fund an noise insulation scheme for nearby dwellings.