Heathrow Airport Terminal 5
Terminal 5 is Heathrow Airport’s newest terminal. The building is on a 260-hectare site located on the western side of the airport, between the western ends of the northern and southern runways. The site was previously occupied by the former Perry Oaks sewage works, and lies to the east of the M25 motorway. Two artificial watercourses, the Longford River and the Duke of Northumberland’s River, originally ran through the middle of the site.
Used exclusively by British Airways, Terminal 5 is a state of the art building – the largest free-standing building in the UK. The glass and steel structure gives a feeling of space and significantly increases the building’s energy efficiency.
The design of the new terminal began in 1989, but government planning permission was only granted in November 2001. Construction began in September 2002, with earth works for the construction of the buildings’ foundation. A preparatory archaeological dig at the site found more than 80,000 artefacts. In November of the following year, work started on the steel superstructure of the main terminal building. By January 2005 the nine separate tunnels needed to provide road and rail access, and to provide drainage, were completed. In March of the same year, the sixth and final section of the main terminal roof was lifted into position, and in December the building was made weather proof. This roof could not have been lifted with conventional cranes because it would have penetrated vertically into the airport’s radar field. Therefore, the roof was assembled on the ground using smaller cranes, then lifted into place by eight custom-built towers, each fitted with two hydraulic jacks to pull the roof up. At peak there were around 8,000 people working on the construction site, whilst over the life of the project over 60,000 people have been involved. The terminal was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on the 14th March 2008 and was open to passengers on the 27th March 2008, with flight 26 from Hong Kong its first arrival. The first departure was Flight 302 to Paris at 06:20 GMT.
CDM
