Calgary airport runway opening celebrations held over the weekend

Up to 10,000 people were expectedto roam the new Calgary airport runway todaywhile enjoying food trucks, vintage airplanes and other attractions.

Calgariansalso got a chance to run or walk the length of the new additionSaturday as part of the grand opening celebrations being held this weekend.

At 14,000 feet long or 4.26 kilometres it will beCanada's longest runway when it comes into service on June 28.

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"You would be able to land a space shuttle on this thing," said Calgary MayorNaheedNenshi.

"So I am looking forward to much more growth of theairport withthis runway and with the new terminal, and more and more opportunities forCalgariansto connect to more and more places."

The new $600-million addition will be the airport's fourth runway and was constructed on airport land between the Air Terminal Building and 36 Street N.E.

Construction on the runwaybegan inApril2011.

Roughly 1,400 participants took advantage of Saturday'sfun runwhichfeatured five- and 8.4-kilometre options.

Airport officialssay the Run and Roam theRunway event received significant interest from the public, with registration for both days activities filling up within one week.

In addition to this weekend's opening, the 620-metre airport tunnelunderneath the new runwaywas alsoopened to traffic recently.

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It connects Barlow Trail to 36th Street N.E. and can accommodatesix lanesof traffic and a future LRT line.

A new $1.4 billion international terminal is also set to open in late 2015.