Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad, operated by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL), is one of India’s leading airports and amongst the first greenfield airports built under the PPP model. As airport traffic has grown and as the terminal has progressed through phased expansion, certain RCC elements required structural strengthening to handle revised loading and to retain capacity headroom for future use. BuildAid was engaged to design a Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) strengthening solution for these elements.
Airports are 24×7 operational environments. Any structural intervention has to be designed for execution without disrupting passenger movement, retail, baggage handling or airside operations. CFRP – which delivers significant strength augmentation with negligible added weight and minimal disturbance – is uniquely suited to such constraints, but its design demands precise diagnostic inputs, accurate stress-state knowledge, and careful detailing at anchorages and terminations.
BuildAid’s approach combined diagnostic verification of the existing structural elements (NDT, cover-meter, in-situ strength estimation, geometric and rebar layout verification) with detailed CFRP strengthening design carried out to ACI 440 / fib bulletin guidance. The design covered flexural, shear and confinement applications as relevant, with explicit attention to anchorage detailing, fire protection where required, and surface preparation specifications. Drawings and method statements were developed to be directly executable by a specialist CFRP applicator.