First Modular Airport in Senegal

In mid-July 2022, the first modu­lar air­port was ope­ned in Saint-Louis in the north of Sene­gal. The Czech Embassy in Dakar ran­ked the con­structi­on as the big­gest Czech achie­ve­ment in sub-Saha­ran Afri­ca sin­ce the 1960s. 

The modu­lar sys­tem was cho­sen main­ly for the spe­ed of con­structi­on and cost savings. The modu­les were 80% con­struc­ted in a pro­ducti­on hall and then the indi­vi­du­al modu­les were moved to Saint-Louis, more than 4500 km away, whe­re they were assem­bled and the buil­dings were completed. 

The stac­ked modu­les form six rows, between which the­re is an iron structu­re that sup­ports the roof. Thanks to this sys­tem of con­structi­on, lar­ge open spa­ces were cre­a­ted – the main air­port hall, whe­re the­re are check-in, secu­ri­ty and depar­tu­re loun­ges, a depar­tu­re hall, a bag­gage rec­laim, and passport con­t­rol are­as. The air­port area of 2700 m² con­sists of 111 modu­les. The han­gar with an area of 738 m² con­sists of 31 modu­les. The buil­dings meet the fire safe­ty requi­re­ments of NFPA stan­dards and are equip­ped with a ven­ti­lati­on sys­tem and extingu­ishers with water mist. The win­dows are equip­ped with anti-solar filters. 

The modu­les were trans­por­ted from Vizo­vi­ce to Sene­gal in three stages. First, they tra­velled by truck to Ham­burg, then by boat to Dakar, and finally by truck to Saint-Louis. The pre­li­mi­na­ry con­structi­on las­ted only two mon­ths – the buil­ding was com­ple­ted in half a year – that is rou­gh­ly four times fas­ter than using tra­di­ti­o­nal methods of construction. 

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