New airport sites identified
Council is focusing on three locations
Anew airport for Whanga¯rei, estimated to cost up to $150 million, would need government funding and could take more than a decade. The Whanga¯rei District Council has ruled out Port Nikau as a location, instead focusing on three locations after whittling down the list from 31 places since it began scoping sites in 2014.
WDC is not divulging the locations, only saying one was south of Whanga¯rei and the other two northwest of the city.
It’s understood one of the sites is a dairy farm in Ruatangata on a stretch of land on Pipiwai Rd, bracketed by Kokopu Rd and Three Mile Bush Rd. WDC paid $7 million to buy it and surrounding properties.
The deal had been agreed, but was not going to be settled until June.
“The total project estimates put together in 2018 was about $140m to $150m, including a 1.5km runway,” WDC general manager infrastructure Simon Weston said.
“Obviously times have marched on and things keep being more and more expensive.
“It’s too much money for a local authority to be able to put together. That’s a hard ask so I think we’d need some assistance.”
The indicative value of the economic impact on Whanga¯ rei of an airport is estimated at between $110m and $228m over 25 years.
Council staff have met government officials with a view to securing funding but Weston said they probably viewed the project as too far away to commit any taxpayer money as yet.
He hopes a suitable site could be found in the next 18 months.
At 1097 metres, Whanga¯ rei Airport runway is the shortest of any provincial airport in New Zealand and is even shorter than Kerikeri’s, which is 1190m.
Vertical takeoff aircraft could solve the problem of a shorter
runway, Weston said, but that technology was a “long way off”.
Weston yesterday briefed councillors on an airport options study that highlighted the preferred sites and discussions with key stakeholders such as Auckland International Airport, Air New Zealand, NZ Transport Agency and the Government.
He said Port Nikau was a great location and closer to the city but significant and expensive reclamation would be required.
WDC needs a 32km “corridor” to build a new airport.
The runway would be 1.5km long, plus 240m at each end, and a 1.5 degree slope for about 15km either side, which the council does not need to own.
“The 15km is your obstacle limitations and you’ve got to keep away from the ground and away from things that would protrude into it. “You don’t need to own this land. “That could be hills and houses as long as they don’t protrude through it, ” Weston said.
Extending the present runway at Onerahi not only required a lot of earthworks but the runway would be closer to the Waikaraka hills, he said.
Covid has changed the landscape for transportation and alternative power for aviation so the existing airport may not need shifting, Weston said.
If it was shifted, he said the site could be developed into a replacement aerodrome for Onerahi or could be sold.
A new airport was a long-term strategic project, he said, and even when WDC secured the consents and started the build, it would be several years in the making.
Uncertainty over Air NZ’s need for regional airports and its approach to the future being unclear in light of the Covid pandemic were other factors that needed to be considered, Weston said.
At yesterday’s briefing, Councillor Phil Halse said WDC needed to focus on the commercial and tourism sectors rather than getting the airport under a national strategy because that approach didn’t work well for provinces.
In its Long Term Plan, published in 2018, WDC has earmarked $5.6m to explore alternative airport options across the district.
Covid-19 travel restrictions mean Whanga¯rei Airport is forecast to lose more than $900,000 over the next three years.