One of the big news stories of today was confirmation from Prime Minister Tony Abbott of the second airport being located at Badgerys Creek. The decision was approved by cabinet today after many months of speculation, and many decades of discussion of the actual location of the second airport.
Tony Abbott advised that the planning and design work will start immediately, with construction starting in 2016. He ‘realistically’ believes that the first flight out of the airport won’t be until 2020.
In making the announcement, Mr Abbott was particular on the jobs and infrastructure that will come about from the massive project, saying the Government is taking a “roads first, airport second” approach. As Western Sydney residents already know, there is pretty much no infrastructure at all currently to support a second airport. I think this will be a bigger project than the airport itself, and needs to be done right.
Mr Abbott said the bulk of the investment for the Badgerys Creek Airport would come from the private sector, with government to take the lead on building surrounding infrastructure, including roads. The cost of building the airport is estimated at $2.5 billion, and the prime minister says that there will be 4000 construction jobs at it’s peak.
One of the big discussion points will be whether the airport will operate 24 hours or have a curfew imposed. Tony Abbott at the moment, has not committed either way.
The Prime Minister said he believes the “noise issue” will not be as significant compared to Mascot airport.”First, because, quite frankly, people don’t want to travel in the middle of the night. And second because we are just dealing with far, far fewer people,” he said. Mr Abbott added that 4,000 people live in the “noise footprint” for Badgerys Creek compared with 130,000 impacted by Mascot flight noise.
What will this all mean for residents in and around Mount Annan, Currans Hill and Narellan? No doubt there will be a lot in the media during the coming months, but also check out our update from last month that showed the proposed flight paths and other information.
What do you think of the second airport at Badgerys Creek? Please leave a comment below?
information sources: abc.net.au, smh.com.au