BUILDING company Ley Choon has won a $24.8 million contract to resurface the taxiways at Changi Airport.
Work started last Monday and is expected to be completed by early February 2017. The contract from the Changi Airport Group also includes installing new LED lights on the taxiways.
Ley Choon is doing the resurfacing with a new type of asphalt premix called HMAC PG82, which it created in its own research and development (R&D) centre.
The premix is designed to better withstand deformation and to suit the extreme conditions of Singapore's tropical climate.
Ley Choon has also created a premix that has better skid-resistance to improve road safety.
The R&D centre was officially opened last September together with a new asphalt recycling plant. Both facilities are in Sungei Kadut.
The new asphalt recycling plant, which can produce 400 tonnes of asphalt an hour, is the biggest of its kind in Singapore and possibly South-east Asia.
This second plant augments an existing facility and has more than tripled Ley Choon's production capacity from 175 tonnes per hour to 575 tonnes per hour.
The plant also uses state-of-the-art technology to recycle material scraped from existing roads. This lowers cost savings as it no longer has to import as much raw materials from overseas.
The industry-average asphalt premix consists of 30 per cent of raw materials, but the new technique allows Ley Choon to achieve 70 per cent.
Chief executive and executive chairman Toh Choo Huat said yesterday: "Although airfield maintenance is a relatively new business segment of the group, we have built a strong track record, having completed three large-scale projects in 2009, 2011 and 2012.
"We have attained the expertise in conducting airfield maintenance and have also built our own premix manufacturing capability. We believe such synergy can help us win more large-scale airfield and road maintenance projects."
The company secured a $25 million PUB contract last month to install water pipes along Dunearn Road.
