CASABLANCA Mohammed V International Airport is located in the province of Nouaceur, about 30km south-east of Casablanca, the fourth busiest airport in Africa and the busiest airport serving Morocco. The airport handled 7,290,314 passengers in 2011, serving 40 airlines.

Terminal 1 has been expanded and will be able to handle more than 20 million passengers annually, with 44 check-in counters and 28 gates, handling arrivals/departures from national and international flights and a new shopping mall.

Sherwin-Williams Protective and Marine Coatings Europe, Middle East, Africa and India (EMEAI) was asked to provide fire protection for the new car park which has been expanded to 250,000 sq meters.

Penthouse structures were being constructed on the top of the existing building, where steel was the choice of material due to the quick installation program and its lightweight.

The steelwork required a 90-minute fire protection period due to its location and nature of the building use. As a result, a FIRETEX solvent-based intumescent paint system was selected.

The project needed to be self-sufficient, with no access to tower cranes other than for off-loading. Instead, mini cranes, known as spider cranes, were used, and five new large balconies were constructed on the existing structure for some of the refurbishment elements.

As the steel had to be double and triple handled on site due to logistics and lifting limitations, the system chosen meant it was robust enough to resist handling and impact damage with minor levels of touch-up.

The specialist FIRETEX FX2002 was applied over Macropoxy K267 primer, top coated with Acrolon C137V2 supplied by Sherwin-Williams Protective and Marine Coatings Europe, Middle East, Africa and India (EMEAI). Applicators working for the distributor Société Mamunia Tours completed the coating. — SG