LUTON -8
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Passenger numbers for June...
Another busy month for the airport last month, with over 1.43 million passenger.
London Luton Airport's Passenger Numbers Grow - London Luton Airport
London Luton Airport's Passenger Numbers Grow - London Luton Airport
The airport is an absolute mess at the moment. Doing all of this work in the peak summer season is simply wrong.
On Friday, rather than pay for a cab, I thought I'd get the airport bus (free for staff) from the station back up to the terminal - the station was rammed full of people at 6pm; fortunately I managed to squeeze onto the second bus which was only 10 minutes behind the first. Because of roadworks and traffic, the bus takes a massive detour - Gypsy Lane, Kimpton Road, Vauxhall Way, Eaton Green Road, Frank Lester Way, Percival Way before getting back onto Airport Way. The roundabout has become a bottleneck at all hours of the day.
A few weeks previous, I got a taxi back around midnight from the station - even at that time the roundabout is rammed.
I can't help thinking that to solve the bottleneck, that the roundabout should be closed and the 'old' Airport way is curved onto Percival Way and the dual carriageway goes straight from the motorway to the airport.
On Friday, rather than pay for a cab, I thought I'd get the airport bus (free for staff) from the station back up to the terminal - the station was rammed full of people at 6pm; fortunately I managed to squeeze onto the second bus which was only 10 minutes behind the first. Because of roadworks and traffic, the bus takes a massive detour - Gypsy Lane, Kimpton Road, Vauxhall Way, Eaton Green Road, Frank Lester Way, Percival Way before getting back onto Airport Way. The roundabout has become a bottleneck at all hours of the day.
A few weeks previous, I got a taxi back around midnight from the station - even at that time the roundabout is rammed.
I can't help thinking that to solve the bottleneck, that the roundabout should be closed and the 'old' Airport way is curved onto Percival Way and the dual carriageway goes straight from the motorway to the airport.
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If you mean the A505 roadworks I agree but if you are talking about the redevelopment work then I disagree. The old arrivals area closed on May 31st 2015 and work on the CTA started on August 5th 2015. Shutting down the building work in the summer months would just extend the agony into another year and would do nothing to help the traffic situation. The issue is the reduced drop off area with its barriers and the reduced short term car park. The drop off area was reduced in size late last summer and the short term car park was reduced I think from January this year.
The roundabout by the Holiday Inn is not the problem. The problem is that the traffic backs up to that roundabout and beyond from the CTA. That roundabout merges traffic from the M1, A1 and the internal road that feeds the rest of the airport so none of those roads can be closed.
The true reason, which was quietly forgotten here when I kept raising it, was in part due to the airport taking every extra route and airline that wanted to use Luton when clearly the airport was not going to cope. Looking back over the months and the monthly passenger figures the airport can just about handle a million passengers a month and that is it. At the moment it is operating at 43% above capacity in my opinion.
The chaos will cost the airport a lot of passengers who won't be coming back in a hurry to see the improvements but by the end of this year the CTA, drop off area, dual carriageway and the multistory car park will all be finished but there is still a great deal of pain to go as the terminal will not be finished until 2018.
Oh and as a side note the traffic jam now goes back to the M1 including the M1 slip road due to the lane closure on the A505 as all the commuters join the queue as they head for home.
The roundabout by the Holiday Inn is not the problem. The problem is that the traffic backs up to that roundabout and beyond from the CTA. That roundabout merges traffic from the M1, A1 and the internal road that feeds the rest of the airport so none of those roads can be closed.
The true reason, which was quietly forgotten here when I kept raising it, was in part due to the airport taking every extra route and airline that wanted to use Luton when clearly the airport was not going to cope. Looking back over the months and the monthly passenger figures the airport can just about handle a million passengers a month and that is it. At the moment it is operating at 43% above capacity in my opinion.
The chaos will cost the airport a lot of passengers who won't be coming back in a hurry to see the improvements but by the end of this year the CTA, drop off area, dual carriageway and the multistory car park will all be finished but there is still a great deal of pain to go as the terminal will not be finished until 2018.
Oh and as a side note the traffic jam now goes back to the M1 including the M1 slip road due to the lane closure on the A505 as all the commuters join the queue as they head for home.
Last edited by LTNman; 13th Jul 2016 at 16:51.
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I flew out of Luton Friday and came back in early hours today. I agree the place is controlled chaos, particular the departure lounge where over half of the outlets are closed and people sitting on the floor everywhere. Security screening seems to be efficient however. I got a lift and got dropped off at the Ibis hotel to avoid the CTA altogether.
Coming back I got a quote from Addison Lee and to my surprise they were fractionally cheaper than my local minicab firm to the Stockwood Park area of Luton - £10.65 vs £11.50 and this was at 1.45am. Previously a black cab would have been around £15.
Coming back I got a quote from Addison Lee and to my surprise they were fractionally cheaper than my local minicab firm to the Stockwood Park area of Luton - £10.65 vs £11.50 and this was at 1.45am. Previously a black cab would have been around £15.
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There was indeed a delay of 6 months in the starting of the work but I don't think all the blame can be put at the feet of the builders. Contracts were slow in the signing, in part due to the Spanish Governments slow privatisation of Aena, which held up funding and the fine tuning of the plans and drawings.
The work for the new taxiway and stands was only put out to tender in March this year so the 4th part of the project has yet to start.
Whitemountain, who are the contractors for the CTA always strikes me that they are under staffed as they seem to have next to no workers on site and that if they doubled their meager workforce the CTA could have been finished by now seeing that work started last summer.
By contrast the contractor building the multistory car park always seems to have 4 times the workforce of Whitemountain, as their site is always a hive of activity and it shows with the speed of their building work.
As for the contractor building the terminal extension they arrived in January and after working on the old bus station for 7 months they have yet to start putting up the framework of the extension.
The work for the new taxiway and stands was only put out to tender in March this year so the 4th part of the project has yet to start.
Whitemountain, who are the contractors for the CTA always strikes me that they are under staffed as they seem to have next to no workers on site and that if they doubled their meager workforce the CTA could have been finished by now seeing that work started last summer.
By contrast the contractor building the multistory car park always seems to have 4 times the workforce of Whitemountain, as their site is always a hive of activity and it shows with the speed of their building work.
As for the contractor building the terminal extension they arrived in January and after working on the old bus station for 7 months they have yet to start putting up the framework of the extension.
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Redevelopment update
Not much happening regarding the removal of the embankment by the tunnel with just a little bit more grass removed than last week. Again nothing to report regarding the terminal infill and canopy. The link building is being scaffolded but nothing else to report.
The multistory car park continues at a pace. The road entrance was put in this week and the ground floor has received its top layer of tarmac and has been painted with road markings. The first floor has had lighting put in and the last of the concreting is being finished off as two teams randomly move up and down the different floors.
Wire mesh is starting to be installed between the roof of each floor and the top of the barriers. We will have to see what happens to the top floor where there is no roof.
A 19m section of bridge arrived on site around 10 days ago. Just above the bridge can be seen a support column. A second support column has yet to be started and a further 2 sections of bridge will eventually appear later on in the year.
To the left of the fence 3 of the 5 drop off exit barriers have been installed. A 100ft tower lighting column has been repositioned, as it was sitting in the middle of the exit route. Work has yet to start on tarmacking the exit route.
Parallel to the new drop off zone that is being slightly extended the new ring road is also being extended.
The multistory car park continues at a pace. The road entrance was put in this week and the ground floor has received its top layer of tarmac and has been painted with road markings. The first floor has had lighting put in and the last of the concreting is being finished off as two teams randomly move up and down the different floors.
Wire mesh is starting to be installed between the roof of each floor and the top of the barriers. We will have to see what happens to the top floor where there is no roof.
A 19m section of bridge arrived on site around 10 days ago. Just above the bridge can be seen a support column. A second support column has yet to be started and a further 2 sections of bridge will eventually appear later on in the year.
To the left of the fence 3 of the 5 drop off exit barriers have been installed. A 100ft tower lighting column has been repositioned, as it was sitting in the middle of the exit route. Work has yet to start on tarmacking the exit route.
Parallel to the new drop off zone that is being slightly extended the new ring road is also being extended.
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Your picture of the first prefab section of bridge brings back memories, sorry nightmares, of life as a setting out engineer. Will the prefab bridge section fit the gap between each end of the link? Have you seen anyone out their discreetly measuring the bridge and measuring the gap.
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The first bridge to go in was inch perfect but there have been a few cock ups over the months. Some of the link building bolts that were cemented into foundations had to be moved and some of the kerb work has been done twice with the loops from the ring road to the drop off area being dug up and started again when they were put in the wrong location.
Work has started on the airports latest hotel just down from the Ibis but on the other side of the road.
The 3 days of lane closures affecting Airport Way don't look finished to me. as there are sections of road that haven't been touched and there are no road markings yet on the new surface.
Work has started on the airports latest hotel just down from the Ibis but on the other side of the road.
The 3 days of lane closures affecting Airport Way don't look finished to me. as there are sections of road that haven't been touched and there are no road markings yet on the new surface.
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Lots of drilling being carried out all over Wigmore Vally Park for soil sample surveys. I believe it was once an old rubbish tip. Spoke to one of the chaps who said they were testing the area for a proposed new road for the Airport!
Strangely enough I can't find any plans for this.
Strangely enough I can't find any plans for this.
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The new employment zone to the north of runway 26 that was planned to have access via the CTA via a new tunnel under taxiway Delta appears to be getting a new cheaper access route via Eaton Green Road that will cut though the middle of Wigmore Park.
Soil samples are being taken from a point close to the tidy tip entrance which will annoy the locals to say the least if the road is built through the middle of the park.
Soil samples are being taken from a point close to the tidy tip entrance which will annoy the locals to say the least if the road is built through the middle of the park.
Last edited by LTNman; 17th Jul 2016 at 17:37.