Ayres Rock is 30m wide without 7.5m sealed shoulders. I just talked to them now to confirm.
Gold Coast/Coolangatta is now 45m wide, 7.5m sealed shoulders (been that way for quite a while) and has just been lengthened to 2492m. But up the road from them is the new Hervey Bay airport – 30m runway width with ops by Virgin Blue 737-700s and -800s, and also without 7,5m sealed shoulders.
The issue of the 7.5m sealed shoulders, and their protection against FOD has been on my plate at a few airports lately. ICAO require the shoulders to have bearing strength plus measures to avoid ingestion of loose stones. This can only be reliably provided for jet aircraft by using bitumen or concrete surfaced shoulders at most airports. Some airports, with good strong soil + moderate rainfall + few jet operations to erode the soil + good maintenance, can use grass/soil shoulders, but this is the exception rather than the rule. Some national authorities make it simple, and state that bitumen/surfaced shoulders SHALL be provided where 7.5m shoulders are required.
For the airport assessing risk, well if an aircraft goes off the side of the runway and there is a problem or it ingests stone/damages an engine, one of the first things to be looked at will be the shoulders and if the airport's position will be difficult if they are not surfaced.
The Boeing presentation is great - pulls together all the factors - thanks be to 'wing files'
Boeing narrow runways