Abstract
Merimbula airport is typical of regional airports in Australia, with a modest aircraft pavement network comprised of local natural gravel and a thin bituminous surface. The airport pavements were expanded and rehabilitated for larger aircraft in 2022 and this paper presents a case study of that work as an example of sustainable and resilient airport pavement rehabilitation. Novel inclusions were the adoption of new runway starter extensions instead of permanently displaced thresholds within an extended runway length, the objective assessment of four staged pavement development options for sustainability and resiliency, a triple bottom line approach to pavement type selection, the use of foamed bitumen stabilisation of the existing granular pavement, and the optimization of the mixture deign of that foamed bitumen base for different granular materials. It is recommended that other airports take a similar approach to significant pavement rehabilitations, for more sustainable and resilient aircraft pavements.