It seems to have gone unnoticed that MAN is not only expanding retail facilities, it is also replacing most of the apron in stages, hence the constant taxiway diversions. I was talking to one of the contractors recently and he said that the old concrete is thick enough its just that the sub foundations (on top of cheshire clay) are not up to the job of holding up 747s 777s etc. He would not disclose exactly how much each segment was costing but he hinted each square was into 5 figures, there are a hell of a lot of squares out there, so it must be costing MAN a fortune.