The Anonymous Widower

The Quickest Solution To London’s Airport Problem

The Sunday Times is saying today, that it would be quicker to build a completely new airport in the Thames Estuary, than to add a third runway to Heathrow.

I’m not sure, but I do know that project planning engineers always have ways of building things faster, if they look at a problem in depth.

If we look at Chek Lap Kok Airport in Hong Kong, that was effectively built in eight years. That is a massive airport and involved a similar type of construction to say building an island in the Thames Estuary with two terminals and four runways. Admittedly Hong Kong didn’t have to deal with our planning system.

But hopefully, there will be less planning problems with putting an airport in the middle of the estuary, as several have proposed, like this guy.

To get another estimate on the minimum construction period, look at the London Gateway port.  They estimate a construction period of about 10-15 years.

The Sunday Times says that a report has said, that the Thames Estuary airport would take 14 years to build and a new runway at Heathrow would take twelve.

Given that the third runway at Heathrow doesn’t solve any of the other airport problems like moving traffic away from London and good passenger access from a lot of the UK, it would appear that this report bangs a big nail in the third runway at Heathrow’s coffin.

There are several things that all of these plans ignore.

The first is flood protection for London. The Thames Barrier should give protection until 2060-70, but it would need to be supplemented or replaced in the future. An estuary airport could be designed to eventually incorporate another flood barrier.

The M25 is not the best designed of roads with a real pinch point at the Dartford Crossing. Every estuary airport proposal incorporates road and rail links to both Kent and Essex, which would add a lot more capacity between the Channel Tunnel and the Midlands and North.

So a properly built estuary airport would probably take longer to build than they have planned at present.

On the other hand, none of the estuary airport proposals seem to pay much attention to the handover from Heathrow. Would it be on a one-night basis as the changes in Hong Kong or Paris or would it be on a gradual basis, as the airport was completed?

This is where the project planners come in.

I suspect that the optimal would be somewhat different to any of the proposals.

Remember that Brits are rather an inventive nation and a cussed lot to boot, so the obvious solutions wouldn’t happen. There would be so much inertia to keep Heathrow, as moving it would effectively change the working lives of millions of people.

So perhaps the most cost-effective solution would be to build the road and rail links from Kent to Essex and create the island for the airport in the first phase. These would improve transport links from the UK to the Continent and take a lot of pressure off the roads in the south-east of England.

The road and rail links would also join the massive port and logistics centre at London Gateway directly to the Continent and probably to the North and Midlands as well. At present, it’s assumed they can fit the trains on the tracks through London, that are shared with the London Overground. Fat chance, that’ll work well!

I’ve not done any calculations and I am just kite-flying, but I’d like to see this planned and costed.

Once proper road and rail links are there, they would make the building of the new airport a lot easier. It might even be started as a cargo airport, if that is where the most urgent need is, as it is ideally suited for that because of its position.

Only when the traffic requirements become known, will we build the airport.

One things that strikes me, is that most pushing extra airport capacity in the South-East have vested interests.

As an example, airlines see railways as competition.  Could this explain why the UK’s rail link to the Continent was designed not to annoy them? A rational design might have driven the High Speed link to the Channel Tunnel right under London with stops at Stratford, Kings Cross/St. Pancras/Euston, Paddington and Heathrow. But that would have annoyed the airlines. And probably the French as well, who would want passengers in North East France to use Charles de Gaulle rather than Heathrow.

The French will probably fight an estuary airport with a vengeance.

I actually think that in the end, we’ll stick with what we’ve got! Although, I do think that a road and rail liknk across the Thames estuary will be built.  Let’s face it, the Dutch would have done it years ago, if only to protect London from flooding.

September 2, 2012 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Flying, Heathrow Airport, London Gateway, London Overground, Project Management