Ice runway Wilkins set for 'facelift', as Australian Antarctic Division prepares for final flight
Expeditioners are preparing for their final flight to the icy continent for the Antarctic season, ahead of a planned face-lift for Australia's glacial runway this summer.
The runway was built on a 500-metre-thick glacier, which moves downhill towards the coast about 12 metres a year and rotates anti-clockwise about 1.5 metres annually.
Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) acting aviation manager Steve Wall said work to correct the rotational movement would start this summer.
"The rotational work that we are planning on correcting this coming season is a lateral movement, so it is the actual runway drifting from the south to the north," he said.
"The northern edge of the runway is up the glacier so we need to cut into that bank to level out the runway.
"They'll use a range of graders, dozers, loaders and snow groomers to cut into blue ice and remove approximately 300,000 cubic metres of ice from the northern edge of the runway."
Mr Wall said the works would help ensure Wilkins can continue to operate for another 10 years.
"It will be ready to support major projects scheduled for the following season (2019 to 2020), including establishing an overland traverse capability and the search for a million-year ice-core."
The runway will close for a three-month period, from November 2018 to February 2019.
It normally closes at the height of summer for about five weeks, due to warmer temperatures causing the airstrip to melt.
The last flight of the year to Wilkins on an Airbus 319 will take off from Hobart tomorrow.
About 550 expeditioners travelled south with the Australian Antarctic Program by air and sea this season, "undertaking nearly 100 projects including deep field ice core work, glacier research and Southern Ocean cloud studies", AAD said in a press release.
Captain Dan Colborne, who will fly the Airbus 319 to Antarctica on Wednesday, said landing on ice can be a test of skill.
"The main issue really is the weather," he said.
"There are the issues of wind, because there is a little bit less friction than normal, and also the whiteout conditions.
"A cloudy day would be no problem on a normal runway, but when the sky, the ground and everything else becomes one, it can be a little bit more challenging.
"We are very cautious and if the weather does turn bad we have enough fuel to be able to fly back to Australia without landing."
AAD general manager Rob Wooding said a maximum of 10 flights would run next season, before and after the shutdown, compared with 18 this season.
"We have a lot of alternative ways of managing things so I think we will be able to maintain a very high level of research next summer," he said.
The Wilkins site comprises approximately 70 per cent exposed ice and 30 per cent snow cover that is less than one metre deep, AAD's website states.
"The foundation of the runway is natural glacial ice, rolled with proof rollers to ensure that the surface ice has suitable bearing strength and integrity to support the aircraft," it reads.