Australia: BAC Green Lights New Parallel Runway

Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) awards a contract for the crucial next stage of New Parallel Runway; work is to begin within weeks. BAC Chairman Bill Grant said that the Corporation had signed a contract for the next important milestone of the New Parallel Runway – the dredging and reclamation – and work would commence on site within weeks.

“This is a clear signal that we are absolutely committed to building this critical piece of national infrastructure,” Mr Grant said. The runway represents $1.35 billion of private investment in critical national infrastructure. It will create 2700 jobs at the peak of construction and 7800 new permanent jobs in the Brisbane/Moreton Region by 2035.

The economic benefit of the project will be in the order of $5 billion per year by 2035.

“In the last 10 years BAC has spent more than a billion dollars on Brisbane Airport and in the next 10 years we’ll spend another $2 billion. As the primary gateway for the state’s business community and a key enabler and catalyst for economic prosperity for the whole state, this investment is essential,” Mr Grant said. The new runway will be 3.3km long, 60m wide, located 2km west of, and parallel to, the existing main runway.

The project consists of the new runway, more than 12 km of taxiways, navigational aids and other airfield infrastructure – all of which is being developed on a 360 ha green field site adjacent to the existing system.

BAC CEO and Managing Director Julieanne Alroe said the company had almost finished preliminary enabling civil works on the site and works under the dredging and reclamation contract would begin within weeks.

The total cost of the works to the end of phase one will be around $500 million.

“Brisbane Airport is building for the future and we are proud to be at the forefront – setting the standard for Australian airports,” Ms Alroe said. “The new parallel runway is powering ahead. We will deliver this critical infrastructure project by 2020 and acknowledge important milestones – like today’s announcement – along the way. On completion of this project, Brisbane Airport will have a runway system with the capacity of major international airports like Hong Kong or Singapore.”

The dredging and reclamation involves the placement on the site of 13 million cubic metres of sand up to a maximum height of eight metres above ground in order to consolidate the soft underlying soils to form a stable platform to construct the runway.

The final phase of the project, the construction of the runway and taxiway pavements, will commence once the ground has consolidated. This is expected to be around 2016/17. The new runway is on schedule to commence operation in 2020.

“We are proud of this project,” Ms Alroe said. “It’s a game-changing project for Brisbane and Queensland that will bring jobs, economic growth, tourist growth and value added investment in hospitality, property, freight and maintenance.”

The dredging operation is expected to have a small impact on seagrass in the immediate area, according to an environmental impact study.

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Press Release, October 11, 2013