The contaminated soil around Terminal 2 has already been cleaned up and the contaminated soil under the terminal building will be cleaned up during the spring. Water monitoring results indicate that the areas outside the airport have not been affected.
Because of the clean-up work, Finavia has closed Terminal 2 and in order to establish the extent of oil contamination under the building and to remove the contaminated soil, Finavia will remove the terminal floor during spring. The work can only start after the airport backup power plant, which is located in the building, has been moved into another building in the airport area.
'We have already ordered a new backup generator but the delivery times are long. The latest estimate is that we can install the generator in April and after that we can start removing the floor of Terminal 2. The backup system is critical to the operations of the airport because the power supply for such functions as air traffic control must be secured at all times,' explains Juha Aaltonen, Regional Director at Finavia and Manager of Turku Airport.
We can only take a closer look at the damage to the terminal building and see whether it can still be renovated after the floor has been removed and the repair work completed. In any case, Finavia will make every effort to ensure that low-cost airlines can continue to operate from Turku Airport,' Aaltonen says.
Finavia has issued all its airports with more detailed guidelines so that similar damage could be prevented in the future. 'We have been working hard with our processes at different airports in order to ensure that there would not be such cases of human error again. For us it is a matter of honour that we can repair all the damage and for this reason we have been working day and night this winter,' Aaltonen explains.
Ground and surface water monitoring in the area around Turku Airport will continue in a manner approved by the environmental authorities. Water sampling results prompted Finavia to reduce monitoring frequency at the start of the year. Because of the quick response, the oil spill has not caused any major damage to the environment or local residents.
