Of a towering figure
gone unnoticed as orange netting has been wrapped around the 14.2-metre building. On Wednesday, the airport’s general manager of corporate affairs, Jenna Raeburn, said it began demolishing the tower in March.
‘‘As the tower penetrates the airport’s obstacle limitation surface and is at the end of its life, we decided to demolish the tower to improve airspace safety and efficiency,’’ Raeburn said.
Obstacle limitation surface means surfaces of an aerodrome that help maintain a level of safety while planes travel at low altitudes.
The Civil Aviation Authority took into account obstacles that
were within these surface areas when determining an aircraft’s height for landing. It also considered weather conditions as that could affect the efficiency of the airport and in some cases, airports had to close until these obstacles were removed.
Raeburn said the airport was salvaging as much of the material as possible and work to demolish the tower was expected to be done by mid-year.
‘‘The site is zoned residential and will therefore be used for residential housing in future.’’
Stuff understands the airport is obliged to buy houses within the noise envelope but must also
protect sight lines within a 45-degree angle of the runway.
The building is believed to be the only control tower with a residential address and post box, and was sold by Tommy’s Real Estate.
Co-agent Jess Platt previously said more than 60 groups came through the tower, and they had received hundreds of phone calls.
There were multiple offers on the tower, with interest from the United States and Australia.
Co-agent Billy Bell previously told Stuff it was the most unusual property he had sold. ‘‘We’ve had unusual-looking houses, but never anything quite like this, so it’s exciting to be involved.’’