• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Need for Runway Safety Areas Not Recent

Posted on: Sunday, 17 July 2005, 15:00 CDT

PALMERSTON North Airport Company knew, nearly six years ago, that new rules on international airports would require the creation of safety areas at the end of the city's runway.

But the issue did not come to public notice until the beginning of this year, when Palmerston North City Council began talking publicly about a proposal to close off a section of Milson Line.

The matter has been brought to a head by a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) regulation on safety areas that is still being finalised. It isn't expected to be in place until late this year at the earliest.

The subject of runway extensions -- and thus the future of Milson Line -- was raised by Palmerston North Airport Company more than five years ago. It forms part of the city's 2002 Transport Management Plan, and was included in the city's long-term planning process. However, there was no reference to runway safety areas.

But pending CAA regulations have forced the issue.

The result is that Palmerston North Airport Company has put both matters -- the safety run-off area and future runway extensions -- in a Resource Management Act application.

City Networks roading chief David Lane says the council has been kept aware, via the airport company, of the CAA's progress on runway safety areas since 2002.

He said the council can't take any action on Milson Line until there is some reasonable certainty about what is necessary and what is being sought.

The airport company didn't inform the council of its intention to seek an airport designation on recently purchased land until March last year. The company had been expected to lodge the application in July, but it didn't do so until February this year. By then, the council had already gone ahead, in January, with a public meeting in Milson about the road's future.

Source: Evening Standard; Palmerston North, New Zealand

More News in this Category