RAF Finningley near Doncaster, an air station with a long and proud history, is to become the new Robin Hood Airport, the first Civil Airport to be developed for thirty years. Established during rearmament in 1935, and with concrete runways replacing the grass in 1943, RAF Finnigley held a vital role in the Second World War first as a training base and later for operational flights. The airfield from which Wellingtons flew over Nazi Germany and, in the Cold War, Vulcan and Victor bombers carried a nuclear deterrent to the Soviet Bloc, is now moving to the more peaceful task of providing freight services and passenger flights within the UK.

As part of the conversion work to transform the RAF base into a civil airport, parking spaces for over 3,000 cars plus another 200 disabled bays were required. With a hard-standing area of two main car parks and one for staff, totalling 100,000 sq.m., plus the rainwater run-off from the Terminal Building roof, drainage was an obvious problem. The Hewlett Group, subcontracting to Main Contractor Bovis Lend Lease and expert in environmental planning, was responsible for the car parking areas and Polystorm Modular Storage Units were chosen as the most effective drainage solution. Manufacturer Polypipe Civils Ltd. worked closely with Hewlett from the birth of the project to produce a design that was practical and simple to install.

The Polystorm System consists of units one metre long x 0.5 metre wide x 0.4 metre deep with a minimum 40 tonnes per m_ compression strength. With a weight of only 9 kilograms but a storage capacity of around 190 litres and a 95% void ratio, they offer a truly remarkable drainage capability. The units can be interlinked in any shape or size required, forming vast underground soakaway tanks and offering great flexibility in design. In the case of Robin Hood Airport, Hewlett’s drainage groundwork consisted of three pits 1,100, 1,900 and 270m_ respectively to contain a grand total of well over 17,000 Polystorm units. Since the pits could be comparatively shallow thanks to Polystorm’s weight bearing capability, the groundwork was relatively simple and the entire drainage system was swiftly installed. |

It is good to see that that the aviation tradition is being carried on at the old Finningley RAF base. The new Robin Hood Airport has provided a sustainable solution for its rainwater drainage.