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Pier D Begins to Rise

The new €120m Pier D building is beginning to rise above the hoardings at Dublin Airport.
The new pier, which is due for completion next autumn, will provide 14 new boarding gates/stands and will be capable of handling about 10 million passengers per year. The first of 13 central cores of the new building, each of which will hold the stairs, lift shafts and vents for the two-storey pier, is now visible above the construction hoardings at the northern end of the airfield.
Each of the 13 central cores that form the backbone of the new building will be six metres high and will be clearly visible on the skyline at Dublin Airport during the early phase of construction.
Pier D is part of the Dublin Airport Authority’s (DAA) €1.2bn plan to upgrade facilities at Dublin Airport. The plan, which also includes a second terminal and a new parallel runway, will enable the airport handle more than 30 million passengers per year.
The new 14,000 square metre building will contain 12 boarding gates servicing 14 aircraft as well as new shops and cafes. It is being built on the northern side of the airport complex and will be connected to the existing facilities by a modern elevated walkway. The walkway is being built as the Old Terminal Building at Dublin Airport is a listed structure and changing its internal layout would have created major planning issues and delayed the opening of Pier D.
As it curves around the Old Terminal Building the new elevated walkway will give departing and arriving passengers a wonderful view of one of Ireland’s most important pre-war buildings.

The original terminal at Dublin Airport was designed in the late 1930s by Garret FitzGerald’s brother Desmond FitzGerald, and won a gold medal for architecture. The curve of the new walkway mirrors the shape of the Central Terminal Building, which itself is reminiscent of a great ocean liner.
The new Pier is being built on the apron, the paved concrete area close to the existing passenger facilities at the airport. Before construction proper began, a special machine called a Rubblizer pulverised the concrete apron on which the new Pier will be built.
The Rubblizer - a large tractor-shaped machine with huge hydraulic hammers at the front and sides - brakes up the concrete in such a way that most of the rubble it leaves behind can be used in the foundations of the new building. By employing a Rubblizer, a piece of equipment that is rarely used in Ireland, the contractors could dramatically reduce the amount of waste material that had to be removed from the Pier D site. This also significantly reduces the number of truck movements in and out of Dublin Airport.

Ends

Editor's note : Pier D Artist's Impressions or Construction Pictures Available on Request

For further information contact:

Paul O'Kane
Communications Manager,
Airport Development Programme
Dublin Airport Authority
Tel 353 (01) 8141897, Mobile 353 (o) 86 6090221