The equipment has been brought to town from Toowoomba as part of a $3 million project to resurface this vital piece of infrastructure at the Raglan transport facility.

The runway alone covers about 54,000 square metes, which is nearly as large an area as the track at Mount Panorama, which comes in at about 60,000 square metres.

Two weeks into the project, Bathurst Regional Council engineer Darren Sturgiss said it is on track to be completed by February 15.

“In terms of progress we are very happy,” he said.

 “The actual stabilisation process on the runway is complete. That involved ripping up the surface with a large, rotary-hoe type of machine that’s 700 horsepower.

“From there, lime and slag are added and it all binds together again, which means the old runway surface is basically being recycled.

“Now we’re adding thousands of tonnes of road base on top and that’s being sourced from a local quarry. 

“So far there’s 17,000 tonnes been put down, but by the end of today [Monday] that should be up around the 21,000-tonne mark.

“It is being graded, compacted and tested to ensure it meets compliance specifications and won’t fall apart. 

“Then it’s time for the spray seal to go on and we anticipate that will take place later this week.”

Mr Sturgiss said they are working in blocks of 250 metres at a time on the runway.

The project is being undertaken in order for council to meet Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) standards.

The last time the runway had any major attention was in 1993 when it was resealed and 1996 when it was resurfaced.

It was originally sealed in 1966.

About two years ago, council spent $450,000 at the airport to replace runway lighting with state-of-the-art technology. 

There was also special navigational landing aids included in that project, a first for Bathurst.