"Denver sixth runway
Runway 16R/34L - Denver's much publicised recent addition - is the longest commercial runway in North America. At 16,000ft long and 200ft wide, it can accommodate the new generation of massive planes, including the Airbus A380.
The sixth runway project was part of the airport's original master plan to provide a balanced airfield operation. This $166m north-south runway allows larger airplanes and planes with heavier loads or longer trans-oceanic distances to safely take off and land in Denver's high-altitude environment.
The three-mile-long runway was paved in just 41 days. To achieve this, the contractor installed approximately 4,100yd³ of pavement each day. The runway has 3.2 million square feet of concrete surface areas using 168,000yd3 of concrete.
"Runway 16R/34L was the winner of the 2004 Project Achievement Award ."
In July 2004, the runway was the winner of the 2004 Project Achievement Award by the Construction Management Association of America. The award category is for public projects valued at more than $100m.
This accolade was followed, in January 2005, by the announcement that the American Concrete Pavement Association had named the sixth runway as winner of an Excellence on Concrete Pavement award.
The general contractor for runway 16R/34L was Interstate Highway Construction. The designer and engineer on the project was CH2M HILL. SURVCON provided precision surveying for the runway and its associated taxiways.
Runways
Denver International Airport has six runways. There are four north-south (17R/35L, 17L/35R, 16R/34L and 16L/34R) and two east-west (8/26 and 7/25). The airfield has room for 12 runways.
Five of the runways are 12,000ft long and 150ft wide. The sixth is 16,000ft long and 200ft wide. Each runway approach is equipped with instrument landing systems. The southern approaches to the four parallel north-south runways are rated category III-b, which allows auto-landing even in the lowest visibility conditions.
Three of the north-south parallel runways are at least 4,300ft apart, the minimum required by the FAA for simultaneous landings in bad weather. Dual or triple streams of aircraft can land simultaneously in these conditions, reducing system delays. No runway crosses another, minimising the chance of aircraft traffic jams or collisions.
Denver airport has six deicing pads and each can accommodate up to six aircraft at the same time. Planes rarely have to queue after deicing because four of the pads are located close to north-south runways 16L/34R and 16R/34L. Aircraft can proceed to take off shortly after leaving a pad. The deicing fluids are collected and piped into storage tanks for recycling." (from (
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"Denver International Airport (IATA: DEN, ICAO: KDEN, FAA LID: DEN), often referred to as DIA, is an airport in Denver, Colorado. At 53 square miles (140 km2) it is the largest airport in the United States by total area, and the second largest airport in the world after King Fahd International Airport. Runway 16R/34L is the longest public use runway in the United States. In 2011 Denver International Airport was the 11th-busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic with 52,699,298 passengers.
It was the fifth-busiest airport in the world by aircraft movements with over 635,000 movements in 2010. The airport is in northeastern Denver, Colorado, and is operated by the City & County of Denver Department of Aviation. Denver International Airport was the busiest and largest airport in the United States without non-stop service to Asia, until United Airlines announced non-stop service to Tokyo's Narita Airport, commencing on March 31, 2013. DIA was voted Best Airport in North America by readers of Business Traveler Magazine six years in a row (2005–2010 and was named "America's Best Run Airport" by Time Magazine in 2002.
Denver International Airport is the main hub for low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines and commuter carrier Great Lakes Airlines. It is also the fourth-largest hub for United Airlines. The airport is a focus city for Southwest Airlines. Since commencing service to Denver in January 2006, Southwest has added over 40 destinations, making Denver its fastest-growing market. Denver International Airport is the only airport in the United States to have implemented an ISO 14001-certified environmental management system covering the entire airport." (from (
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