All it has taken is a 'pothole' in RW06/24 to cause HUGE disruption on the busiest day of the week. This pavement damage occurred yesterday early afternoon from what i have been told. Why could this not have been fixed overnight? No work was being done before the 'big rush' at 6 am this morning!
A refueller mate of mine over there reckons that it was repaired overnight that night, between about 1am and 4am, after the east coast redeye rush and majority of the internationals had been and gone. Unfortunately for you guys, if the repair was made with asphalt, this material typically requires some curing time before it can be safely returned to normal service and so I imagine this would have been the reason you all needed to use the long runway.