Post by The Red Baron on Nov 12, 2010 20:29:15 GMT 12
Hamilton International Airport may spend hundreds of thousands of dollars raising part of its runway extension to protect a population of bats.
The airport, jointly owned by Hamilton City Council and four district councils, has applied for planning approval to extend the runway by 1000 metres.
Airport chief executive Chris Doak said the airport had known for some time a population of long-tailed bats lived in oak trees on private land near where any future runway extension would finish.
"The airport's very cognisant of the needs of the long-tailed bat, and we are planning for that with one of New Zealand's leading long-tailed bat experts," Mr Doak said.
"We've taken them into account at every step, and in fact we've changed the design of the runway."
The solution is slightly elevating any future runway extension at the Raynes Rd end, so aircraft taking off would clear the trees in which the bats roost. Mr Doak said the need to cater for the bats in the planning "has added some cost", although that had been offset to some extent as the solution would mean there was no need to lower Raynes Rd – one prospect mooted.
He confirmed it was "millions of dollars to both raise the runway or lower Raynes Rd", and that if the extension was pursued, raising the runway would be the more expensive option by "many hundreds of thousands of dollars".
www.stuff.co.nz/travel/4339443/Bats-may-rule-roost-at-airport
The airport, jointly owned by Hamilton City Council and four district councils, has applied for planning approval to extend the runway by 1000 metres.
Airport chief executive Chris Doak said the airport had known for some time a population of long-tailed bats lived in oak trees on private land near where any future runway extension would finish.
"The airport's very cognisant of the needs of the long-tailed bat, and we are planning for that with one of New Zealand's leading long-tailed bat experts," Mr Doak said.
"We've taken them into account at every step, and in fact we've changed the design of the runway."
The solution is slightly elevating any future runway extension at the Raynes Rd end, so aircraft taking off would clear the trees in which the bats roost. Mr Doak said the need to cater for the bats in the planning "has added some cost", although that had been offset to some extent as the solution would mean there was no need to lower Raynes Rd – one prospect mooted.
He confirmed it was "millions of dollars to both raise the runway or lower Raynes Rd", and that if the extension was pursued, raising the runway would be the more expensive option by "many hundreds of thousands of dollars".
www.stuff.co.nz/travel/4339443/Bats-may-rule-roost-at-airport
