The Ministry of Defence has issued a Contract Award Notice for a major upgrade project at RAF Valley in Ynys Mon (Anglesey).
The focus is on the refurbishment of the secondary runway, specifically the Aircraft Operating Surfaces (AOS) and Aircraft Ground Lighting (AGL).
Valued at approximately £44 million, the project has a two-year timeline, starting on 19 December 2023 and scheduled for completion by 19 December 2025.
Lagan Aviation & Infrastructure, a Belfast-based company, won the contract following a bidding process that concluded on 17 May 2023. The firm is known for its work in aviation infrastructure and will be responsible for the refurbishment tasks crucial to the airbase’s operations.
Published on Contracts Finder on 20 December 2023, the notice details the contract under the CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) code 45235300. This code is specific to construction work for aircraft-manoeuvring surfaces.
The notice states, “To refurbish the secondary runway Aircraft Operating Surfaces & Aircraft Ground Lighting at RAF Valley Ynys Mon (Anglesey)”, indicating the precise nature of the work to be undertaken.
Two years to lay tarmac and some lights
I’d like the contract to be made public. We are in a situation just short of war. God help us if the Russians start blowing holes in the runways. Pathetic. The Airstaff need a really good shake up and court marshalling to set an example.
Could they extend that second runway a bit, seems there is space for it from the shot.
Somebody is making a lot of money on that contract…….£44m……that is about 4x what it should be.
Maybe you should have put in a bid 😉
It is the usual problem of working active airside and in a secure environment – drives up costs.
? A wee bit of finger 🖕 in the eye to the elbow. Bah humbug. 😏😁🕳️
It’s the MOD…par fir the course!
If someone rocked up at the guard room and said, “I’ve got a couple of loads of tarmac, do you need the runway resurfacing?” that would help the defence budget a lot! Seriously, I guess the tarmac is really the cheap bit. The lighting and who knows what else needs to go in will be the expensive bit.
44m?? Don’t defend graft!
Graft as in U.K. “hard work” or graft as in the U.S. – “stealing”? The runway is 1500 metres (just under a mile) long and 50 wide which is by my maths not dissimilar to a motorway. They cost between 20£M to £60M a mile, so it looks bang on to me.
Remember its Wales…they can’t exceed 20mph 🙂
If you’ve ever been to Cardiff you’ll know that 20mph can only be achieved in your dreams. If you make 15mph you think you’re flying, boyos!
Problem everywhere these days. Have to say I zoom past Cardiff, hack my way past Port Talbot and Swansea and headed for the sunlit uplands of Pembrokeshire.
And very nice too. I grew up in Carmarthenshire – right in the middle of the RAF Pembrey (now RAF Pembrey Sands) range circuit so had Hunters all day long from the early 1960s. Fab! They are why I wanted to fly. My father farmed the land between the by then redundant airfield. Happily, it’s now a civil airfield. Getting in an out must be fun when the range is active.
Why would a training base need two operational runways, whilst a major combat base (ie. Lossiemouth) just gets one. Priorities need addressing, I think.
Lossiemouth has 2. You have no idea what you’re talking about.
Please refer to my correcting comment made earlier. Thanks.
Hi Paul. By the time my original response got approved you had already made the clarification but I hadn’t seen it yet, so apologies for the confusion.
No need to be rude, chum.
Calm down you silly sausage. People in defence circles consistently speak about things they have little idea about and misinformation gets spread. It’s important to keep it in check.
Thanks Tom, duly calmed down! But I’m a Vicar so I am hard wired to tell people to be nice to each other!! I get that misinformation is always a danger.. in my own professional life I see that all the time… Distinguishing between a mistake and misinfo is an important skill, increasingly so as info is instantaneous It’s also a tough world where we have to get facts straight. But genuine mistakes are the fertile soil of new learning, and distinguishing which is misinfo and which a genuine mistake is an art. It’s one reason I engage in conversation on UKDJ – it can be bruising, (I am often on the edge of my knowledge, as I’m not a military person. I know a little about aircraft but nothing about ships or tanks) but these conversations sharpen my knowledge and my skills, I hope. And it’s sometimes the throw away remark someone makes that is so illuminating.
Hi Wyn. That’s understandable. I’m still learning a lot of stuff myself so I apologise if my comment came across as crass to either you or Paul as it wasn’t intended to be. All the best.
Valley already has two runways, as does Lossiemouth. A new runway is virtually impossible in most RAF bases as there isn’t the space.
They’ll be maintaining one of the current runways as it states in the report, runway 19 as 31 was done a few years back.
Fantastic Runway facilities at LLanbedr, ignored completely, plenty of room on the old RAF and RAE site for expansion.
Probably nowhere to sit the deckchairs and goggle out to sea? Lazy bums.
Maybe doing some research will answer your question!!!
You could say it has a 3rd too, the RLG at Mona.
My bad. Meant Coningsby, not Lossiemouth.
Good to hear that Valley will get much-needed investment. This base is principal in terms of training and the economy of Anglesey.
I’m confused, We have next to bugger all Hawks left yet Valley, which has been flying them for yonks, now requires a second runway ?
Why is it confusing? It’s a busy operational station with a very high sortie rate across the various training aircraft that operate out of Valley. It’s also in a pretty windy location. And as the article state’s. Its a revamp of an existing runway. Its not a brand new runway.
I think the RAF needs a good shake up. Possibly even a Royal Commission.
Now requires? It’s always had a second runway. Technically, it has three if you include the relief runway less than 6 miles away at RAF Mona.
Yes, I now see what i wrote. I mis read the article. Doh !
Oh, sorry. I just made that point further up, now I see you’ve covered it.
No need to apologise.
The USAF use Valley a lot for the Match Loop.
We should have got them to pay the bill 😉
Agreed I find it odd , maybe a squadron of Typhoons on there way 🤗
Don’t forget the Texans which are far more likely to need a second runway option in strong winds. The faster you fly the less crosswinds are problem.
Despite a major war in Ukr, with the UK supplying lots of hardware and materiel, no mention of air defence. Even after Medvedev and Putin made all sorts of threats against us
When the planners/HMG have their heads in the sand the outlook seems perfectly safe!
People need to understand that most RAF bases and their Runways were laid out either during or just prior to WW2 and were built quickly and for a different era.
If you do a bit of research the work involved is pretty extensive and essentially involves digging the entire runway and its foundations up, regrading, upgrading and replacing it. Oh and the base needs to stay operational whilst that is going in.
See Breedon for details.
I know what it involves and you are 100% right about how hurriedly a lot of the bases were put together.
https://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/proceedings/ar2009-0847-0856_Potts.pdf
Exactly.
There is also the issue of the aggregates and their grade. The Czech should have used a 4(?) but instead used a (10) you get the idea, to save a lot of money – you can’t see the substrate on a new motorway, so…
Motorway collapsed within weeks of opening and prison time followed.
An Italian engineer tasked with resurfacing Rīga Airport, shipped his materials in from Iirc Sweden at a cost of mere millions despite being offered… inducements… to use low quality Latvian aggregates. It’s not cheap.
So… some light fittings. A few light bulbs. Concrete and tarmac for a runway. Concrete, special blocks and bricks, for special RAF buildings, oh and maybe a new Mess Hall?
All this costs £44million nowadays?
As soon as you say things like “The firm is known for its work in aviation infrastructure”, the price doubles.
Taylor Wimpey would probably have served just as well.
George Wimpey might have built the original runway!
Interestingly a motorway – a comparable surface, I suggest – costs between £20 and £60 million a mile (according my research) – so £44M is right in the middle of the ball park, I think. A £million isn’t worth much these days. We need to not be boggled by the numbers.
O/T but Santa is on his way to Ulraine…the first batch of F-16s are being prepared for delivery by the Netherlands.
They refurbished the main runway with a new addition to the ring road, where you don’t have to go out the main gate to crash gate 2 every time you need to go over the other side. The work was carried out by an Irish company in 2018-2019.
What’s the point, nothing left to actually use it!
Runway refurbs.’ usually precede airfield closures’.
I well remember, in the 1990s, the Ward Room at a certain Navy land base being re-roofed with beautitiful Welsh slate 6 months before the whole place was closed down!