Heathrow’s Northern Runway has tarmac replaced in overnight works

By the end of the year, the project will have replaced around 200,000 tonnes of asphalt. Some construction jobs are deemed a success if no-one notices it. This is one of them.

Gawaine Yates says so far it has gone well.

“That’s what we’ve been striving to do. We’ve not had a single late handback.

“The public have not known any dramas from here, because we’re dealing with it on the night.

“We have resilience built into the shift, so that everybody knows what they’re doing.

“If something goes wrong, we’ve done exercises to make sure that we can get back on track and deliver that handover by the absolute crystal latest… 05:30.

“We have to be, everybody done and dusted, ready to give it back to air traffic control, at 05:45, to vector that first aircraft into the runway at 06:00.”