How do you make sure that your car park can handle tens of millions of visitors every year?
This was the question facing Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) when it initiated its Master Plan, which would drastically increase capacity to up to 80 million annual passengers by 2035.
To prepare for the arrival of roughly six times today’s number of visitors, the KAIA upgraded its parking facilities with 600,000m2 of the high performance deck coating systems Deckshield ID and Deckshield ED.
Deckshield’s full polyurethane formulation makes it a highly reliable solution to such a challenging environment. This reliability stems from the combination of a polyurethane topcoat with a polyurethane primer, which makes it less brittle than systems that use an epoxy primer. Thanks to this advantage, Deckshield is better able to withstand the deflection within the slabs and decks of a car park that are caused by intense multiflow traffic.
The strong bond with which Deckshield adheres to the substrate is an important part of this ability to prevent floor failure. To test whether the floor coating was up to task, or whether the constant movement of vehicles would spoil the finish, the Deckshield surface underwent a rigorous adhesion pull-off testing process.
A pull-off test measures the force required to separate the coating from the substrate. When an adhesion tester was applied to the KAIA’s new car park floor the Deckshield achieved an exceptional result, which means that the airport operators can be confident that a robust and long lasting finish has been achieved.
This longevity has functional, cost saving and aesthetic advantages, which were all important considerations for the KAIA if it was to achieve its ambition of becoming one of the region’s most high profile airports and a leading gateway to the Gulf. Maintaining a seamless, faultless finish would help to create a high-quality impression on the many tourists, pilgrims, business people and travellers moving through the airport.
Flowcrete Middle East has become a popular flooring partner for the Gulf region’s large-scale car park developments. Other prestigious car park projects currently being undertaken include delivering 40,000m2of Deckshield to the Mall of the Emirates (Dubai) and 48,000m2 of Deckshield ED is being supplied to the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium (Jeddah).
