Action pledged on airport

Press, 15 June 1978, Page 6

Action pledged on airport

The Minister of Civil Aviation (Mr McLachlan) has promised progress on the building of the international wing of Christchurch Airport as soon as structural matters are finalised.

The policy and finance committee of the Christchurch City Council sent a telegram to Mr McLachlan saying that it had unanimously resolved to seek approval for calling tenders immediately for stage one of the international wing “in (view of the serious unem'ployrnent situation locally.” Mr McLachlan replied [yesterday: “I understand the airport authority expects [today to finalise some [details on structural matters which have been the subject of discussions between your consultants and the Ministry of Works and Development. On receipt of your advice that these matters have been resolved I wil] immediately refer my final submission to my colleagues the Ministers of Finance and Works and then to the Cabinet works committee.”

There has never been any doubt that the Government would approve the airport terminal extens.un, but the timing of an official goahead has been a concern for Canterbury interests lobbying for the project. Approval in principle was granted by the Cabinet in March, 1977. At that time, it was hoped that construction tenders could have been called by that September, almost a year ago. As time wore on, it was shown that the project — only the first stage of an i eventual two-storey inter-1 national wing — would now probably cost about S4M by the time it was finished in 1980. That is about twice as much as the original estimate in 1976. The extension work will be funded from airport reserves.

In spite of frustration in getting the project under way, it was disclosed last month that such bureaucratic delays were common. They had been experienced in the past, and would continue until the system was changed.