Rongotai To Close For Two Years From August

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28262, 27 April 1957, Page 15

Rongotai To Close For Two Years From August

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, April 26. A revised construction programme for Rongotai airport has been released by the Minister in charge of Civil Aviation (Mr, T. p, Shand). The main points are: 1. The target date for opening Rongotai Airport to Viscount and Dakota airline services is March, 1959. 2. Scheduled services to and from Rongotai will cease on August 1, 1957. 3. Rongotai’s present 2650 ft north-south runway will be available for restricted light aircraft operation until about February or March, 1958. After that, restricted light aircraft operations should be possible from the southern portion of the new runway. The schedule was prepared by the Rongotai co-ordinating committee, comprising the Director of Civil Aviation (Sir Arthur Nevill) as chairman; the District Commissioner, Ministry of Works (Mr P. L. Laing), and the Wellington City Engineer (Mr F. B. C. Jeffreys). The objective has been to achieve the earliest possible date of completion of the project to the stage permitting the operation of Viscount services from Wellington.

TTie essential earthworks have continued without interruption during the necessary period of fe-plannmg,” said Mr Shand, “and the City Council has been going ahead with the works for which it is responsible. *The co-ordinating committee’s problem has been to fit a wide Variety of projects into a master schedule aimed at having the new Rongotai in use within two years. “Everything must now be geared to this schedule, and both the Government and the City Council are satisfied that the co-ordinating committee has chosen, from all the alternatives, the programme that will best serve the general public interest at the least expense.” Complex Programme The committee’s report emphasises “the complexity of the programme, which involves most careful co-ordination of the various projects, and a practical engineering approach if the target date is to be achieved at all. “The programme is ‘very tight’ and any delay in securing approvals, or delays in contracts because of weather or other reasons will inevitably postpone the date of the opening of the airport,” says the report. The committee deserved praise for the speed with which it had tackled a difficult assignment, said Mr Shand in releasing the report. An important factor in this was the co-operation between the City Council, the Ministry of Works and the Civil Aviation Administration.

“Many important negotiations remain necessarily incomplete at this moment,” he said, “but the programme must run to its finelydrawn timetable if Rongotai is to be in operation within two years. “I appeal, therefore, to all who are in any way involved in this major project to co-operate to the utmost so that the objective can be achieved.”