Associate Professor Raymond Ong (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) has been appointed to the founding steering committee of a new centre aimed at helping airports around the world improve the safety, reliability and sustainability of their runways, taxiways and aircraft stands.
Launched recently by Changi Airports International (CAI), the Airport Pavement Centre of Excellence (APEX) aims to address the growing challenges facing airport infrastructure, including increasing air traffic, heavier aircraft and more extreme weather conditions.
The scale of the challenge is considerable. Changi Airport alone handled some 374,000 aircraft movements in 2025, averaging more than 1,000 take-offs and landings every day. Airport pavements must withstand these while also coping with variations in temperature, rainfall and other environmental conditions. Differences in climate, construction materials and operating conditions mean that solutions developed for one airport may not necessarily be suitable for another.
APEX aims to address these challenges by bringing together researchers, airport operators and industry specialists to share knowledge and develop practical solutions for airport pavement planning, construction, maintenance and rehabilitation.
Demands increasing
“An A380 can weigh more than 550 tonnes at take-off, so airport pavements have to be able to withstand enormous loads,” said Assoc Prof Ong.
“As aircraft get heavier and weather conditions become more extreme, the demands on them are only increasing. On top of that, what works well at one airport may not necessarily work at another, so there's a real need to develop solutions that take local conditions into account.”
He added: “APEX is an opportunity to bring researchers and industry practitioners together, to learn from each other's experience and turn new ideas into practical improvements that airports can actually use.”
Building on Changi Airport's more than 40 years of experience in pavement design and operations, the centre will pursue research into more durable pavement materials, including new polymer-modified bitumen formulations tailored to different geographical conditions. It also plans to work with international aviation authorities, including the US Federal Aviation Administration, to help improve regional airport pavement standards.
APEX was formally launched at the 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Airport Pavement Management, held in Singapore on 15–16 October 2026.
Assoc Prof Ong, who is Dean's Chair Associate Professor and Deputy Head (Research and Enterprise) at CDE's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, also serves as Vice President of the Pavement Engineering Society (Singapore). His research includes airport pavement performance and the effects of environmental conditions on pavement materials and structures.
He is one of five members of the founding steering committee, alongside Emeritus Professor Fwa Tien Fang, formerly of NUS CDE and now Distinguished Professor at Chang'an University, China; Associate Professor Wong Yiik Diew from Nanyang Technological University; Mr Koh Ming Sue, Executive Vice President (Engineering & Development) at Changi Airport Group; and Mr How Choon Onn, Senior Engineering Director (International Projects) at CAI.
