Balfour Beatty | Heathrow Airport Terminal 2 departure lounges

Working together to build a more sustainable Heathrow

At Heathrow, we combined design, construction, ground engineering, specialist mechanical and electrical expertise to create the Terminal 2 departure lounges, delivering a satellite building that is linked to the main terminal through an underground tunnel.

At £592 million, constructing the new lounges was one of the largest airside projects in Heathrow’s history and now provides pier-served tunnel links to the main Terminal 2. Balfour Beatty’s integrated approach enabled our customer to open three aircraft stands three months early, helping them to ease stand congestion.

Off to a flying start

Working in close collaboration with the customer and supply chain partners, the project team achieved a £10 million saving and a reduction of five weeks in the schedule on the substructure package by using Building Information Modelling. Phase 2 was completed on programme, increasing capacity by a further 10 new stands which are capable of receiving A380 jets.

We brought together a range of in-house expertise to successfully deliver the project. We prefabricated the plant room and other mechanical and electrical components at our off-site Modular Systems + facility. This allowed us to deliver Phase 1 ten weeks ahead of schedule, removing 115,000 hours of work from site and mitigating safety risks by reducing hot works. Our in-house piling business, Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering, installed over 2km of diaphragm walls, 700 piles and 160 plunge columns to support the new terminal building.

“Balfour Beatty is one of those companies who routinely looks for ways to make things better. From what I have seen innovation and safety are clearly embedded in the Balfour Beatty culture.”

Steve Morgan – Capital Projects Programme Director, Heathrow Airport Ltd (Formerly BAA)

£592m: contract value
40%: more carbon-efficient than the old building
14: new stands capable of receiving A380 aircraft