New Airport for Toowoomba

[SeatBackForward]

When you own the equipment and employ the labour etc directly, it is certainly possible... Maybe a bit like Jetstar making huge amounts of money while Qantas pays the bills... But who knows.

Digging dirt and pouring concrete is the not the expensive part of an airport, or most other building projects. It is either being subsidised somehow or they have badly miscalculated.

 

[Mal]

What do you consider the expensive parts?

 

[SeatBackForward]

The structural components outside the concrete, the mechanical and electrical equipment for both inside the terminal, and the services required around the airport, and then all the fancy systems required for airports (think of the delays that Denver International had with their baggage handling systems).

I don't think the Wagners construction company is that sophisticated to be able to self-perform all the above.

ETA: granted its not a *huge* complicated airport, but they are claiming 747 capability, so its not exactly your local airfield either.

Here's the wikipedia article on Avalon airport, which might be a somewhat reasonable comparison:

Since the introduction of Jetstar in 2004, the Avalon Airport terminal facilities have been expanded from the original size of 732 square metres to nearly 5,600 square metres.Over $100 million has been invested in the airport thus far to complete the following:

• An apron expansion completed to accommodate a further four aircraft as well as enable the opportunity to accommodate an aircraft the size of a Boeing 747.
• A total of seven A320 sized aircraft can now be parked simultaneously in front of the airport terminal;
• Installation of a Flight Information Display system;
• Fuel farm expansion to triple storage capacity from 500,000 to 1,500,000 litres of A1 jet fuel plus installation of new fuel pipelines;
• Construction of a new bus, taxi and hire car road and various rerouted roads to manage incoming passenger traffic and other road infrastructure upgrades;
• Fuel farm electrical maintenance and demolition of unused buildings; ·
• Significant infrastructure upgrades as part of the Australian International Airshow

 

[Fruitcake]

Digging dirt and pouring concrete is the not the expensive part of an airport, or most other building projects. It is either being subsidised somehow or they have badly miscalculated.

At this point it doesn't seem they are planning on doing much more than digging dirt and pouring concrete:

Wellcamp and Defence: There's room for both of us | Toowoomba Chronicle
Stage 1 is for a small terminal (194 square metres, according to an earlier published masterplan), 120 car parks (scaling to 1000), no hangars or fuel storage, and no security screening.

 

[lukenet]

If it is set up like most of the other regional airports, then it will be reasonably cheap (in airpot terms) to do. They also don't have all the bureaucracy that most airports are famous for. That alone will save hundreds of millions in stupid decisions and mistakes.

It will be a regional airport, built for locals and FIFO workers. I would not expect much more than tarmac stairs, bags are delivered via a cart under a shed, a simple building with canteen to wait out of the weather and car parking.

I would not be surprised if you see some Australian and Asian LCC base out of there..

In construction terms, Wagners would do it easy (much cheaper than just about anyone else in the industry) and still deliver a superior product. Wagners are a huge and very professional construction company with massive levels of vertical integration both up and down stream. They own all the concrete batch plants, queries and most of the building materials companies needed to do the job in house. Big chunks of Design and Engineering would also be done in house by their own busineses. This will save big wads of cash also.

I say good on them, anything to give BAC a run for their money and make the wake up and do something to fix BNE. This is a 100 year business decision. As SE QLD expands, it will be very well serviced for Air transport links and won't have the issue SYD currently faces.

 

[moa999]

They also don't have to build a runway on a marsh, and spend years getting the dirt stabalised first (like Brisbane 3rd runway proposal).

Presumably they have selected a very flat bit of land where all they need to do is a bit of digging and then lay the tarmac and reinforcing x cm deep.

 

[Boris spatsky]

I heard 6 months ago from a friend in Infrastructure in government that they have demanded the military airspace overhead the airport (Amberley) be changed to accommodate the airport. Unfortunately this was after they had commenced construction with nil discussion with Defence.

I seriously doubt that Defence or the govt will change significant airspace for a company that failed to engage them at the planning stage. Could be pretty restrictive trying to fly RPT into or out of there!

 

[Fruitcake]

I seriously doubt that Defence or the govt will change significant airspace for a company that failed to engage them at the planning stage. Could be pretty restrictive trying to fly RPT into or out of there!

According to the Toowoomba Chronicle the issue has since been sorted:

Wellcamp and Defence: There's room for both of us | Toowoomba Chronicle

Issues over shared air space with Oakey Army Aviation Centre and RAAF Base Amberley have been a recurring theme since the airport was given the all-clear for construction last December.
Since then, a complete re-design of Brisbane airspace - which encompasses all three outfits - has been completed.
...

"Air Vice-Marshal Leo Davies spoke at a conference on the Sunshine Coast a couple of weeks ago," Mr Wagner said.
"His attitude was that (the air space re-design) was a great outcome for the Department of Defence and that when people worked in collaboration and co-operate, they could achieve a lot.

 

[samh004]

Can't wait to fly into it

 

[TomVexille]

Is this the QLD version of AVV?

 

[markis10]

Is this the QLD version of AVV?

not sure why people feel it's going to be a great to BNE when we have two international airports a lot closer with good highway connections, Wellcamp is a very slow long and boring 140km away, perfect for giving Toowoomba and surrounds a proper regional airport.

 

[Clivem]

I'd rather fly via SYD, or MEL, or ... heck, ADL then go through Toowoomba!:shock: That place is the armpit of QLD I swear (and I've lived in a heck of a lot of QLD!!).

That's a bit harsh K_sheep .... Toowoomba is not the end of the earth ........ Although granted if you placed two pallets on top of each other in the middle of it's main street and then stood on top of them you could certainly see it from there.

 

[Fruitcake]

That's a bit harsh K_sheep .... Toowoomba is not the end of the earth ........ Although granted if you placed two pallets on top of each other in the middle of it's main street and then stood on top of them you could certainly see it from there.

Sooooooo.... Ipswich?

 

[MarkD]

Sooooooo.... Ipswich?

Oiiii Behave

 

[Boris spatsky]

According to the Toowoomba Chronicle the issue has since been sorted:

Wellcamp and Defence: There's room for both of us | Toowoomba Chronicle
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Thanks for the link.

 

[Clivem]

They poured the base slab for the 'terminal' building the other day but surprisingly it didn't look that big ..... I'm more mechanical engineering than structural, but how that is going to cope with the load bearing forces applied as the likes of Emirates, Singapore etc. all clamber for space for their flagship lounges at this important hub has me perplexed .......

No doubt they are doing wonderful things with concrete additives and reo-bar these days.

 

[SeatBackForward]

They poured the basis slab for the 'terminal' building the other day but surprisingly it didn't look that big ..... I'm more mechanical engineering than structural, but how that is going to cope with the load bearing forces applied as the likes of Emirates, Singapore etc. all clamber for space for their flagship lounges at this important hub has me perplexed ....... no doubt they are doing wonderful things with concrete additives and reo-bar these days.

LOL

Well while the Wangers would love to have those airlines as customers of their airport, the reality is that the only lounge you mind find at the airport initially is the lizard type.

But if they're building for the capacity to land 747's, who knows! (which is why I call $100m as too little)

 

[samh004]

The plans show an airport design like OOL. No gate bridges. That would effectively rule out premium carriers I would expect. LCC's might be fine though and could be a good diversion airport when BNE is fogged in or OOL is too wet...

But from the design, it's only planned to have 1 runway, so they're not intending to compete properly, just as markis10 says, regionally.

 

[markis10]

Looking good.
CH7 have a story on it tonight in their BNE news.

 

[puppysparkes]

The website is now live: Wellcamp Airport and Business Park | Queensland, Surat Basin, Toowoomba, Darling Downs

Link to the seven news video, no login required. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wellcamp-Airport/693362874010035?ref=hl