Proposed National Towers Program Stage 1 for Airservices Australia at Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne and Rockhampton Airports.

Purpose

Airservices Australia (Airservices) proposes to rebuild and refurbish existing Air Traffic Control (ATC) towers through the Airservices’ National Towers Program (NTP).

Stage 1 of the NTP, and subject of this Inquiry and Report, is the proposed replacement of existing control towers at Adelaide; Canberra; Melbourne; and Rockhampton Airports.¹

Need

Airservices has undertaken a number of surveys of all the towers in the inventory which included: structural assessments; maintenance risk assessments; and an overall assessment of the state of tower infrastructure.

The most urgent needs are proposed to be addressed under Stage 1 of the NTP. Airservices states that the criteria driving the need for the work are:

• maintainability - the age of existing towers is increasing the cost of operation and maintenance beyond an economic level;
• standards – the existing towers do not conform to current standards of amenity and workplace design and, in some cases, to requirements of the Building Code of Australia (BCA)or Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) standards; and
• technology upgrades – some of the existing control towers lack both infrastructure and design flexibility to support the communications equipment and displays which are required for the current and future generations of air traffic control systems.²

Scope

The proposed scope of works for the replacement towers in Stage 1 is to design and construct ATC towers at specified sites at Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne and Rockhampton Airports with necessary support buildings. These works include:

• all earthworks for the building and also for roads, car parks and services;
• control tower and support building(s);
• all services – electrical (mains and emergency power), mechanical, hydraulic, water, stormwater, sanitary plumbing, security, fire detection and protection;
• floor ducts, risers, cable trays, cable entry pipes and pits for all services;
• connection from the control tower site to Airservices Australia’s and/or Public Utility communication providers for voice and data communications;
• provision and installation of a telephone system;
• data network;
• lightning protection;
• electromagnetic protection;
• supply and installation of suitable cabling/optic fibre to defined interfaces for supply and installation of air traffic control systems and equipment; and
• space and support structures for communications aerials, including microwave dishes.³

Project Delivery

Pending parliamentary approval, it is anticipated that a design and construct contractor will be appointed by late 2007, then approximately six months in design followed by a 16 month construction period.⁴

Cost

Airservices has allocated an out-turn budget of $94.5 million to Stage 1⁵ (excluding GST).

Appendix C, Submission No. 1, paragraphs 2 and 3 Back

Appendix C, Submission No. 1, paragraphs 11 and 12 Back

Appendix C, Submission No. 1, paragraph 31 Back

ibid, paragraph 65 Back

ibid, paragraph 64 Back