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QUEENSTOWN AIRPORT RUNWAY EXTENDED

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December, 2009

Work has started on a Queenstown Airport runway extension that will require some 76,000 truckloads of fill to complete.

The $5 million runway extension safety area, or RESA, must be completed by October 2011 in order for the airport to continue receiving international flights.

Queenstown Airport chief executive Steve Sanderson said contractor Fulton Hogan had begun laying the foundations for the extension on the Shotover Delta.

Debris was being cleared and the footprint of the extension marked out.

Starting early next year, more than 190 dump trucks of material would be delivered daily over 18 months to reach the 700,000 cubic metres of fill required.

Its footprint will spread out 240m on to the Shotover Delta and slope 30 degrees upward so the top of the area increases the length of the runway buffer by 90m.

At least half of the fill will come free from the nearby Remarkables Park, which received resource consent to undertake earthworks this year, Mr Sanderson said.

"It was a win-win for the airport and Remarkables Park - they get their subdivision and we get the fill for the RESA."
The agreement also minimises the number of trucks on public roads, with the fill being transported across privately owned land from one site to another.

Work will also begin early next year on the extension at the Frankton end of the runway.

Contractors would undertake earthworks and install a jetblast fence to create another 90m safety area. Mr Sanderson was confident the project would be completed by the middle of 2011, several months before the Civil Aviation Authority's October deadline.

Remarkables Park director Alastair Porter said work had started on pegging out the 1.5km eastern arterial road, which trucks would use to transport the fill.

It would be metalled while in use to form the extension and later sealed and opened to the public so people could drive from Remarkables Park, around the end of the runway, to Shotover Park and State Highway 6.

Truck movements are expected to begin in January or February.