Beca leading design of Melbourne Airport’s 3rd Runway

Beca in partnership with Arup and Airbiz are thrilled to be delivering the design for the next stage of Melbourne Airport’s Third Runway (M3R).

The new runway will considerably enhance the airport’s capacity, by enabling simultaneous runway operations, providing a critical piece of infrastructure that will deliver benefits to Victoria for decades to come.

The team’s appointment follows a longstanding relationship with Melbourne Airport, which has included prior phases of M3R along with many other major airfield projects, such as the Southern Apron Expansion and Taxiway Victor.

Our combined team’s strong local connection to this project (our leadership team are all living in Melbourne), our deep experience in airport planning, runway and taxiway pavement development and civil and geotechnical engineering; combined with our commitment to sustainability and readiness to ‘hit the ground running’ were all additional factors in our successful appointment.

Harnessing the power of cutting-edge Digital Engineering technology, including BIM (Building Information Modelling) will form a crucial element in our approach. An example of the work we have already delivered - a 3D visualisation of what the completed runway will look like, can be viewed here.

"Our combined team shares a strong commitment to bringing safe, sustainable and creative ideas to Melbourne Airport, along with a transparent and open working relationship" - Craig Downey, Beca

“Melbourne Airport has been a priority client for our teams’ business(es) for many years, and we value our collaborative working relationship. Our combined team shares a strong commitment to bringing safe, sustainable and creative ideas to Melbourne Airport, along with a transparent and open working relationship”, said Craig Downey – M3R Design Manager at Beca.

Meanwhile Melbourne Airport’s Peter Parsons – Program Manager commenting on our pivotal role said “The Beca / Arup / Airbiz team has performed fantastically for Melbourne Airport over many years, and we look forward to this continuing through the next phase of the design. The combined team brings a wealth of local and international experience which we will be drawing upon as we start to define the requirements of the runway for our passenger and freight airline customers”.

With annual passenger numbers expected to grow to 76 million people by 2042, the third runway will also secure important economic benefits for Melbourne and the state of Victoria, contributing an extra $4.6 billion per annum to gross state product by 2046.

Construction of the runway, subject to federal government approval, is expected to take place over 4-5 years, creating more than 37,000 jobs throughout the process.

Through our partnership with Arup and Airbiz, we look forward to working together to make everyday better for future generations of Victorians by strengthening our state’s gateway to the wider world!

For more information on the capabilities of Beca’s Airport teams and how we’re helping to shape the airports of the future, visit us here or get in touch with Craig Downey.

Image Credit: Melbourne Airport, 2022