Many of the systems at the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) are outdated and need to be upgraded.
This was disclosed by the Director of Engineering at the GAIA Karen Walkes on Monday, as she responded to questions in the well of the Lower House when debate kicked off on the 2023/2024 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure.
She said that in her estimation, scanners and generators were among the critical items that needed to “commence and complete replacement during this year to ensure the continued operations of the airport”.
Pointing out that the airport had been in a “long period of economic downturn”, Walkes said recovery started around 2017 but was stymied by the COVID-19 pandemic which started to affect the island in March 2020.
“So we would have been deferring replacements and major maintenance at the airport for quite a period of time and many of our systems are actually past their original planned use for life,” Walkes revealed.
“So we have actually engaged in quite a lot of maintenance. I know people see there are systems and the systems are failing, but the equipment is actually quite aged and we are doing quite a good job [with them] based on the comments we get from international persons regarding keeping these systems operational,” she added.
Walkes’ comments came just shy of a week after the overnight closure of the island’s sole airport last Tuesday, following the discovery of faulty runway edge light circuits that evening.
Six outbound and six inbound flights were affected.
Walkes explained that there were over 35 000 feet of underground cabling associated with the runway systems, of which about 40 per cent is “old cabling”.
Giving an overview of how the runway edge lighting might have been affected last week, she said: “We operate at quite high voltages which creates safety issues for our electrical teams and also means if there are any defects in the cabling or the insulation around those cables the temperatures get very hot and any defects might result in melting of the cables and that is what would have happened over the period of [February] 13, 14, and 15.
“The team was able to implement a bypassing of the areas where that failure occurred and we were able to bring the lights back up to allow for operations and then over the course of the remaining period, institute a replacement of those underground cables. That work is expected to be completed tomorrow [Tuesday].”
She said a comprehensive report on the planned replacement of the cable was due to go before the Ministry of Tourism on Monday night.
Walkes also noted that mitigation measures were being implemented, including the restocking of the cable.
“We are looking at the acquisition of 100 per cent redundancy solar lights for the runway edge light circuit. We have in our possession, and we had actually started to roll out, replacement of the incandescent edge lights with brand new LED lights which would drop the voltage of the temperatures at which the systems operate,” she added.
“We are looking to also implement a more rigorous early alarm system and a planned cable replacement programme for the airport. That is all going to be included in the report.”
Walkes also disclosed that airport officials were working closely with the Ministry of Finance to determine what developmental and replacement projects could be facilitated under GAIA Inc.’s planned partnership with a private airport operator.
She said they were also looking at “critical issues that need to be addressed in advance of that arrangement being put in place”.
“In terms of the airfield works, persons would know that we did do a pavement replacement project and while that project would have replaced some of the conduits and cables on the runway, it did not replace all of them,” the engineer added.
Meanwhile, Director of the Civil Aviation Department Tracey Forde-Bailey stressed the need for safety, noting that it was critical to ensure the airport’s lighting, navigation, communication and surveillance equipment were well managed and serviced according to international standards.
“The scenario that occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday evening presented some concerns,” she said, adding that following the incident, meetings were held to put contingency plans in place “and steps to be undertaken to have some highly reliable permanent airfield lighting systems if possible and to minimise the systems failure or to prevent failure to both circuits servicing the edge lights”.
“The goal here is to ensure that Barbados implements . . . multiple safeguards against a total or partial failure of the system, and this is going to be very critical during the aerodrome certification exercise which is to be conducted by the Civil Aviation Department as well as the international civil aviation bodies. These systems will be audited and the report must reflect the strategies to have levels of protection against an entire system failure,” explained Forde-Bailey.
Minister of Tourism Ian Gooding-Edghill said Barbados was keen on maintaining its safety record at the airport.
