Australia, October 2015.Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport (BWWA), Toowoomba, Queensland, is Australia’s first greenfield public airport to be built in 48 years. BWWA became fully operational with commercial flights operated by Qantas Link in November 2014.
30 years after my invention of Geopolymer cement in USA, at Lone Star Industries (Pyrament cement), this project marks a very significant milestone in engineering – the world’s largest geopolymer concrete project, so far. BWWA was built with approximately 40,000 m3 (100,000 tonnes) of geopolymer concrete making it the largest application of this new class of concrete in the world. The geopolymer concrete developed by the company Wagners, known as Earth Friendly Concrete (EFC), was found to be well suited for this construction method due to its high flexural tensile strength, low shrinkage and workability characteristics. Heavy duty geopolymer concrete, 435 mm thick, used for the turning node, apron and taxiway aircraft pavements, welcomes a heavy 747 cargo for regular air traffic between Toowoomba-Wellcamp BWWA airport and Hong Kong..(See the video on my visit to the Toowoomba-Wellcamp-Airport).
Prof. Joseph Davidovits’ visit to the Toowoomba-Wellcamp-Airport.
On October 3, 2015, Joseph and Ralph Davidovits flew from Sydney Airport to Toowoomba-Wellcamp-Airport, for a visit to the company Wagners.
Prof. Joseph Davidovits’ visit to the Global Change Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
On October 7, 2015, Joseph and Ralph Davidovits drove with Tom Glasby and Russell Genrich, company Wagners, from Toowoomba to Brisbane. Our News dated December 10, 2013, was titled World’s first public building with structural Geopolymer Concrete. It introduced the world’s first building to successfully use geopolymer concrete for structural purposes, the Global Change Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The 4 story high building, for general public use, comprises 3 suspended geopolymer concrete floors involving 33 precast panels. They are made from slag/fly ash-based geopolymer concrete coined Earth Friendly Concrete (EFC), a Wagners brand name for their commercial form of geopolymer concrete.
Details on this world premiere in the paper by Glasby et al. (2015), EFC Geopolymer Concrete Aircraft Pavements at Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport, in our Library, Technical paper #23 GP-AIRPORT. Technical Paper on Geopolymer Aircraft Pavement