Sydney airport upgrade will close runway
Sydney airport's only east-west runway will be closed for more than a year for an upgrade, from April 2008 to mid 2009, the Sydney Airport Corporation Limited (SACL) says.
SACL spokesman Michael Samaras told AAP that flights into Australia's busiest airport will be diverted to Melbourne, Brisbane or Canberra if crosswinds prevent landings on Sydney airport's two remaining north-south strips.
"The temporary closure of the east-west runway means there will be operational impacts in the event of strong cross-winds," a SACL statement said.
"If there are high crosswinds while the east-west runway is unavailable it is likely that flights to and from the airport will be delayed or diverted to other airports."
Sydney residents living in the path of the north-south approaches will have to bear the burden of increased air traffic over their homes.
"People living under the existing flight paths to the north-south runways will, to varying extents, experience an increase in the frequency of aircraft movements," SACL said.
There will also be disruptions and some inconvenience to passengers while the project is underway, SACL CEO Russell Balding said.
Apologising to the public, Mr Balding said SACL aimed to maintain noise-sharing arrangements as far as practicable.
"However, the need to temporarily close the east-west runway and prevailing weather will have an unavoidable impact on noise sharing," Mr Balding said.
SACL expects the total increase in flight movements on the north-south approach will be between one and three additional flight movements per hour on each of the eight separate approach and departure flight paths.
"The actual flight movements will, however, vary on a day-to-day basis due to prevailing weather conditions," Mr Russell said.
Sydney airport will start construction of the $65 million larger runway safety area at the western end of the east-west runway in April 2008, SACL said.
Similar mandatory safety work is complete at the eastern end of the east-west runway and at all the other ends of the north-south strips.
The runway safety area will be an 8,100 square metre land bridge that will provide a cleared area measuring 90 metres by 90 metres from the end of the runway strip that will assist in the deceleration of an aircraft.
Construction will involve the installation of more than 100, 27 metre-long pre-cast concrete structural beams, each weighing more than 25 tonnes.
Pre-construction site works will get underway next month and the runway will either be closed, or have only restricted availability, from April 2008 to completion of the project in mid-2009, SACL said.
source: The Age