Runway upgrade soars to £85m.
Tuesday 11th November 2008, 2:30PM GMT.
UPGRADING the runway is now budgeted to cost £85m. – some £35m. more than 10 months ago.
The Public Services Department’s report on the airport will be published on 21 November for debate in the States next month.
It will be the first major capital project aired in the House ahead of the debate at which the States will decide in what order projects should be tackled and how they might be funded.
Public Services minister Bernard Flouquet said yesterday that because the full report was about to be published, he was limited as to what he could say.
‘It will outline the process that we wish to adopt for the refurbishment of the runway, the taxiways and the parking areas and the other issues that go with that such as lighting and the instrument landing system,’ said Deputy Flouquet.
‘The report will be presented to the States under rule 12.4, which is for them to note without amendment. We want the States and the public to have the report in the run-up to the March prioritisation debate.’
The £85m. figure does not include possibly extending the runway to 1,700 metres.
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We can forget about the extension altogether. This can be put to the back of the wishlist. When we are in good times again bring it out again. The things that I would like answered are:
Who has quoted?
How many quotes have been receve?
Have we sought German tenders?
The Germans are so organised and generally professional to the highest of standards. They would be worthwhile.
Can a team from our own island be paid well and trained up to do the job at a fraction of the cost? Could community service offenders and prisoners be used as labour to reduce costs further. Who knows most would probably prefere this to sitting in a cell all day?
We have lots of options. Have they all been explored?
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Sensible comments that ought to be explored
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All good points, if there was more of this then we wouldent be in debt.
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Now is precisely the time that we should be making brave and robust plans to secure the long-term future of our airport runway.
£85m is an obscene and excessive price. Guernsey tax payers and their politicians must demand alternative competitive quotes.
Civil engineering companies are hungry for new contracts. Unfortunately prices from local firms will be excessive. Consequently we must obtain comparative quotes from outside the island, and Germany in particular.
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There are thousands of Polish workings returning home from the UK right now – contact a runway building contractor in Poland, get a quote and have them over for 4 months, it won’t cost half that.
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I agree with you paul about the extension it is not as important as the resurfacing of the aprons taxiway and runway…..the EMB195 120 seat jet aircraft currently operated by flybe is just about the largest viable aircraft to fly out of Guernsey…This could land here now if the Airport Authority would pull their finger out…
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erm, perhaps this is another tap on the shoulder for the accountants!
Is a sliding income tax scale still too complicated for you to manage?
If that’s really still the best reason you can give for failing to fairly tax the islands wealthly then perhaps you should have a go a laying runways instead and let the gcse maths children have a go!
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Aw, don’t say that John, the wealthy may start having kittens and writing anonymous letters to the Press full of horror that anyone could possibly think about it. Tsk. Heaven forfend that it was ever debated. Can you imagine the mockery?
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A 70% increase on £50m in 10 months??
Who on earth is conjuring up these figures?
Current estimates should now be less (not more) than 10 months ago!
(Wasn’t the original estimates in 2003 in the region of £21m including the runway extension)??
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Migz
We are being played. Made to feel scared into jumping when in reality the price has and will continue to fall. Local tenders are expensive. I have no doubt that others will be able to to a better job for a third of the price. That is even taking into consideration all traveling expenses and accomodation. This firm will also make a healthy profit. The workers will be grateful for the work as well as their wages. If we can’t compete then we need to question ourselves why is that? The best price will win the day in times like these.
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I’m still amazed that everyone is just so keen to spend money the island simply doesn’t have in the kitty..
How much does 85m cost/per person on the Island.. I think that’s roughtly worked out in my head, that’s about 135000.00 per person on the islands..
That’s one hell of a lot of extra tax to find
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From what I know, the report was compiled by junior civil servants with no specialist knowledge and no expertise in this field. I would suggest that the States learn from past mistakes and cast a wide net when considering potential quotes for the necessary (?) works. It is time that the States became accountable for the civil servants they employ to generate such important reports.
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I’m surprised (or not) that the States of Guernsey did not spend the money on the runway first rather than building the “Terminal for the future” with a runway back to the days of the Battle of Britain. Surely where the planes land should have been tackled first.
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Have the person/s that assembled the original £35m off target budget been sacked or does ever inaccurate budgeting and ever over-spending Departments looking ever more like a bunch of monkies in the public eyes provide career opportunities in the States?
I make £85m a cool £2,000 per head (say 40,000 out of 65,000 taxpayers in Guernsey). That’s too much for tarmac!
Can deputy Flouquet give a breakdown of the budget detailing what’s so essential aboput work on the car park as it looks absolutely fine to me
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Regarding the upgrade/extension of our runway I assume our government will contact airlines who would potentially service Guernsey as part of their links if they were able to land their bigger aircraft here?
This type of research seems so obvious yet I haven’t seen any mention of it – I suspect it may throw up some interesting results particularly with the companies that already fly in and out of Jersey, after all they fly past Guernsey on their way there!
What must not happen is to write off the chance to extend the runway whilst the remedial work is done, obviously it would be far more economical in the long term to make the right decision now rather than decide in ten years time that we need a longer runway so come on States, do your homework properly!
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A few noteworthy comments in here, the best so far has to be why they didnt sort the runway first then the terminal after all 1 requires the other first.
The other point no one has mentioned is why we now have a totally useless terminal building which is still incapable of expansion, we currently have less chack in desks then we did in the old terminal in a building much bigger, when these airlines start to fly here on our bigger runway where are these people going to check in and board from, our departure lounge is laughable at best and again almost comaparable for size with the old one, one has to ask themself what exactly did we gain in the new terminal apart from a new building, i was shown the plans when working in the old terminal and asked my manager if the architect had copied the old plans and placed them in a photocopier with a 10% size increase as thats what it looked like we were being sold, as per usual the workers were ignored.
lets hope if they do extend the runway they do it so the island will not have to look at a further increase in another decade or so when aircraft change again.
personally one area which has not been looked into is just to run our airport as a hop to jersey and use their facilities for the uk, with what we have spent on our terminal and runway (possibly) the states could of subsidised airlines to taxi people across to jersey very cheaply to pick up flights to most UK airports from jersey.
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My dad used to work at the airport doing a pretty important job for one of the companies before retirement two years ago. He always told us this, The airline companies do not want a runway extension, so why are the States always so keen on it.
Also from his expieriences If they extend it the airlines might bring in larger aircraft but with less flights per day/week, so there would not be any more passenger movement then there is now.
He also recently met up with a popular man from one airline who we all see on the news about the airport (I won’t mention name) He told Dad that there are big potholes on the runway but all the airlines want is for them to be filled in, not resurface the whole thing and the States should have filled them in regularly as they appeared, but the States wondered why it was so bad, but they had not touched the runway for years.
They maintain our roads regular enough over the years, why not the runway!!!
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