P.M. confirms airport extension cost

Press, 10 October 1977, Page 7

P.M. confirms airport extension cost

Parliamentary reporter The figure given recently by the Minister of Tourism (Mr Lapwood) as the amount needed to

extend Wellington Airport runway by 1150 ft — S3SM has been partiallv confirmed by the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon). Declaring open the new international terminal facilities he also confirmed that there was no prospect of a quick decision on a matter involving so much public money. Mr Muldoon gave three tentative assessments of the cost of extensions — to the north (into Evans Bay), between 511.5 M and

$15.5M to both ends (but not involving reclamation), between 524.5 M and S3SM, to the south (into Lyall Bay), between S29M and S42M.

Unofficial advice received at the function is that the “cheap option” of extension to the north is most unlikely at this time because the people of Miramar for which the Minister of Works and Development (Mr W. L. Young) is member of Parliament. have protested in the strongest terms about the resulting noise-level. The southern extension ■is unpopular because of the cost of protection

against heavy surf. This leaves only the each-way extension as a possibility. Cynics regard this decision as now far in the future. Mr Muldoon disclosed that further engineering investigations were under way, and that no expenditure would take place until the Minister of Civil Aviation (Mr McLachlan) was satisfied that on economic grounds that an .extension was preferable to the use of a short-operating aircraft for trans-Tasman flights. The European airbus, which can operate comfortably into and out of Rongotai, is under consideration.