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Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

amusingplanet.com

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Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#6

Post by therein »

chris_overseas wrote: post #3

The town I grew up in, Gisborne New Zealand, had an airport that had a railway line crossing the runway. Perhaps unsurprisingly the trains had to give way to the planes. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/08/gisborne-airport-runwa...

I find that surprising rather than unsurprising.

After all, a plane can easily do a no-fault turn-around and can observe the train in a collision path from up above while the same cannot be said for a train.

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#7

Post by duiker101 »

I lived next to the runway for about an year. I can actually seem the apartment from some of the photos. It was an interesting place.

It's really just after the border with Spain so if you stay in the country you don't need to cross it every day, but more people work in Gib than live so there is quite a good amount of traffic.

As with most things, you get used to it and it just becomes normal very quickly. The best thing was probably the fact that "I'll pick you up at the airport" is a 5 minutes affair rather than a few hour.

Another interesting sight of Gibraltar is the Sunborn Hotel, which is pretty much ship without motor that acts as hotel/casino.

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#8

Post by mortenjorck »

Seeing the headline, I thought that can't be right; there are plenty of airport runways built on overpasses over major highways.

The possibility of an at-grade crossing between a public road and an international airport runway was not even in the realm of imagination for me!

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#9

Post by mattlondon »

Not only that but there is a huge rock cliff face (aka "The Rock") towering over the runway only perhaps 300m or so (?) to the side of the runway and water at both ends. Quite dramatic approach and landing compared to most airports that are typically in the middle of somewhere really flat.

That said I was mildly disappointed by gib - I thought it would be much more glamorous than it was considering its Mediterranean location and reputation for finance and gambling businesses. It kinda felt like Margate-in-the-med.

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