Underground baggage change for Heathrow's new terminal

The design of BAA's proposed Terminal 5 at Heathrow has been changed to include a five million m3 automated baggage facility built totally underground, the public inquiry into the scheme was told last week.

BAA told the inquiry that British Airways had insisted on a central underground baggage system for the £1.8 billion project so that the terminal and its satellites could offer the same standards of service as other terminals at Heathrow. The original scheme to handle baggage on the ground floor of the core terminal would have meant that bags could not have reached aircraft being loaded on some of T5's outer stands on time.

Project director Norman Haste has outlined a nine-year construction programme for the T5 complex. The first four-year phase would be the most intensive and involve the construction of the core terminal building with the underground baggage facility and underground public transport interchange.

The first phase would also include a passenger satellite building, a hotel, control tower, car parks, aircraft stands and aprons. A 1.6km long motorway spur linking the terminal with the M25 would also be built.

The second phase involves construction of a second passenger satellite, aircraft maintenance buildings, more car parks and an office block.

Haste said that more than 6,000 construction workers will be needed during the peak of construction. Most of the raw materials will arrive by rail at a logistics centre a mile from the principal site. Materials include more than 800,000 tonnes of crushed rock, 600,000 tonnes of cement and cement replacement powder, and 190,000 tons of reinforcing steel.