2

Ray

I took a spin as far as the airport yesterday via the Ruette Tranquille which passes for a major bus route in St Pierre du Bois.I even had to pull in to let a couple of motorcycles pass!

The presentation was much the same as the excellent pull out feature in the Press with no extra hype,just plain common sense reasoning as to why it is now essential to reposition the runway with added future proofing at the best possible price

I must admit to having a genuine,if fleeting, tweak of sympathy for the nearby residents when I saw the golf course type of grass area which will replace the current rather pleasant aspect of the small fields and hedges but hey,I live in the north of the island

I have had to put up with the Power Station spewing out who knows what from the chimneys,Bordeaux and Chouet tips with their pleasant odours,heavy traffic and wind strewn rubbish,oil tanks,coal boats,Ronez block yard,sewage emptying points,the cattle incinerator,theft of our cobbles to enhance LeFebvre Street,daily traffic jams except when schools are out(see if you notice the difference next week),the Kev run,the dawn chorus of the dumped cockerels at the Vale Castle,and I can look forward to the development of Leale’s Yard if it ever gets started

I gladly make the sacrifice and unselfishly put up with all of these things because I know deep down that most of them are for the good of the whole island

If today’s news of extra freight charges,higher mooring charges and such like finally convinces some of the head in the sand black hole deniers that Guernsey cannot afford the gold plated solution that is EMAS I look forward to them making their own personal sacrifice,obviously not for their own little parish, but for the whole of the island

But I’m not holding my breath

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4

Ray

Gilthead

Sorry for the delay in replying

Someone bet me that I would not be able to find a green ribboned vehicle North of the Avenue / Rohais / Route de Cobo line.I got cold and hungry AND lost the bet,but anyway,that’s where I’ve been

Re the view of the Western end of the proposed infill.There was one small picture section on the bottom right of the last display board which showed a before and after ‘view’ of how the western end would look from the Route de Plaisance near the ‘compulsory field’

It showed the top half of a plane on the runway which was quite a bit higher than the roadway aspect with a gentle grassy slope leading up from the road boundary to the runway

I would expect that for security reasons some sort of fencing will be installed along the roadside

Not nearly as pretty as the present little fields but is it a view worth the EMAS price
(which we are now being told would need to be completely renewed every ten years!)

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6

Guern abroad

From the Mott MacDonald Report.
quote – In fact, the FAA’s requirement is that an EMAS installation should have
a service life of twenty years. Existing installations are only just
exceeding 10 years old and so this lifespan is yet to be proven, but the
condition of the existing beds does not yet suggest that this lifespan will
not be achieved. – quote
Any damanged blocks through aircraft incidents would be covered by their insurance I gather for replacement.
Technology is advancing all the time, EMAS is the most technology rich environment for safety. Grass is just grass, plus slippery when wet. Does pretty much sod all to help increase traction and stop an incident.
I would suspect that you do not need brakes to be stopped on EMAS, grass on the otherhand, you are I would think waiting for the plane to become carnage in the earth before stopping, eventually.

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8

Ray

Guern abroad

I would expect that any company worth its salt would build a maximum shelf life into its products

Much better for them to replace / sell a whole new EMAS system every ten years at the end of its sell by date than hope to scratch a living replacing damaged blocks after an over run / under shoot

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