American Expatriate Costa Rica

RESA: the new security zone at Juan Santamaría Airport

Costa Rica is one of the 192 member countries of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a specialized agency of the United Nations.

In mid-December, the country will comply with one of the provisions established by ICAO regarding the spaces to land or takeoff in irregular or emergency conditions.

The Runway Emergency Safety Area (RESA) has an area of 90 meters wide and 150 meter of additional length on runway 07 of the main air terminal of the country. This space will have no obstacles and will be used in emergency cases.

Franklin Orozco, Infrastructure Manager of Aeris, explained that RESA has different conditions, for example the asphalt. It also has a design that allows “to catch” the aircraft in case of emergency. The importance of the area is that it reduces damage to planes and passengers.

To achieve this goal, the extension of the runway in 60 meters is carried out in parallel, which allows to create two access routes from the new parallel taxiway south towards the head of the runway.

As for the dimensions of the runways, at the international level it is suggested that “large airplanes , with full fuel and passenger loads, such as the Boeing 747 or the Airbus 340, require runways of at least 2.5 km. to take off and land safely. However, small passenger planes need tracks that do not exceed one kilometer.”

This work is just one of those contemplated in Aeris’ Master Plan, whose investment exceeds $143 million.

This year, work began on La Candela Street for an amount of $39.5 million, to improve transit and communication with communities such as El Coco, La California, and Ojo de Agua. The street passing through the east side of the Airport will be displaced in about 300 meters and a new one will be created.

crhoy.com