Genève,
19
May
2016
|
15:06
Europe/Amsterdam

Start of construction of the East Wing

Summary

As of 19 May 2016, Mr Pierre Maudet, Councillor of State in charge of the Department of Security and Economy (FSD) and Mrs Corine Moinat, Chair of the Board of Directors of Genève Aéroport, symbolically buried in a concrete slab the plans of the East Wing whose airport managers have started digging the foundations.

This building of 520 meters long, 20 wide and 17 tall will house the boarding lounges mainly dedicated to long-haul flights. This infrastructure of glass and steel, tilted at 26° to the tarmac, will have a roof fully covered of solar panels. This architectural piece, made by the RBI-T* group, will have six positions for large aircraft and may treat two smaller aircraft.

The future East Wing will replace the facilities built provisionally in the 1970s. The first phase of construction, known as BAT1, inaugurated this day, will be to demolish the existing facility and build the structural work. It will end at the end of 2017. The construction site of the East Wing itself, called Bat 2, will start at the beginning of 2017 and end mid 2020. The building should be put into operation at the end of 2020.

“The East Wing will provide Genève Aéroport boarding lounges for its large aircraft worthy of International Geneva and the companies operating these flights”, said Corine Moinat. The Chair of the Board of Directors welcomed the “change of era” that the East Wing represents both in terms of infrastructure and of the approach and management of projects of this magnitude at Genève Aéroport.

“This project is part of the dynamics of movement that has been imparting the evolution of this platform for nearly 100 years”, applauded Pierre Maudet. The Councillor of State put the East Wing on the long series of projects that will continue to transform the airport in the coming decades so that it responds to the request expressed in the wide catchment area whose centre of gravity is Genève Aéroport.

Estimated at around CHF 480 million, the East Wing symbolises the visible part of a larger renovation work of the entire East area of the airport. In respect of the preparatory works of the East Wing, various large projects have been completed since 2011. Among which the partial burial of a part of the Customs road joining the commune of Ferney Voltaire to the French sector from the airport.

* The RBI-T group is composed of the entities Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners, Architecture Office Jacques Bugna SA, Ingérop Conseil & Ingénierie and T-Ingénierie SA 

Bertrand Stämpfli