Leighton Buzzard company supplies materials for London Luton Airport runway upgrade

The materials included 7,000 tonnes of sand sourced from the company’s Grovebury Quarry in Leighton Buzzard, and approximately 28,000 tonnes of aggregates from Holcim’s Bardon Hill quarry in Leicestershire.

The materials were used to produce Marshall asphalt, a high-performance surfacing material specifically designed for airport runways.

The asphalt mix is engineered to withstand the repeated stress and extreme loading created by aircraft landings, take-offs and stationary aircraft movements.

According to Holcim, the scheme represents the first full resurfacing of London Luton Airport’s 2.1km runway since 2006.

To minimise disruption to airport operations, construction activities were carried out overnight within a tightly controlled working window of fewer than six hours each night before the runway reopened for scheduled morning flights.

As part of the programme’s sustainability measures, the existing runway material removed during resurfacing works was transported to Holcim’s Croft Circular Construction Hub in Leicestershire, where it will be recycled and reused in future asphalt production.

Marc Wolman, infrastructure director at London Luton Airport, described the scheme as the airport’s largest airfield engineering programme in more than 20 years.

The airport said the resurfacing project was essential to maintaining the runway’s long-term operational performance, resilience and safety standards.

Holcim has previously supported several other major UK aviation infrastructure projects, including runway resurfacing works at London Stansted Airport and RAF Wittering.

In January this newspaper reported that 30 jobs were potentially at risk after Holcim UK (formerly Aggregate Industries) announced a possible closure and relocation of its concrete production factory.