Tenders have been called for the construction of Queenstown Airport's newly approved runway end safety area (Resa) platform, but the Otago Regional Council on August 5 will consider appealing commissioners' veto of its training line consents.
Queenstown Airport Corporation chief executive Steve Sanderson said yesterday he was pleased the consent application to extract gravel to build the Resa was granted.
Approval by commissioners Jeff Jones, Trevor Shiels and Mike Bowden on Thursday gave the airport a "good line of sight for construction", he said.
"It's a very positive [decision].
"It's secured international flights into Queenstown Airport and it's great for the district and region."
Tenders were advertised this week and construction was hoped to begin by the end of the year, with completion in June 2011.
The Civil Aviation Authority requires a Resa at Queenstown Airport by October 12, 2011.
Queenstown Airport Corporation needs 700,000cu m for the 90m-long, 45m-high engineered fill on the western bank of the Shotover River.
Extraction of up to 1,070,000cu m of gravel from the Shotover delta was approved for the estimated $10 million project.
Queenstown Lakes District Council chief executive Duncan Field said the commissioners' decision "absolutely" secured the last pieces in the Resa and Project Shotover plans.
But he was disappointed over the training line and revetment wall component causing uncertainty over the regional council's flood mitigation proposal.
"ORC has made a strong commitment to finding a means to getting it sorted out."
Commissioners granted the consents needed for the regional council's proposed river training line from the Queenstown Lakes District Council, but declined the consents needed from the regional council as a consent authority.
The regional council needed to address the "significant tension" between the statutory protective Water Conservation (Kawarau) Order 1997, the council's own regional water plan and the training line concept, the decision stated.
Environmental engineering and natural hazards director Gavin Palmer said the regional council addressed the order in its consent application and it was addressed in legal submissions and technical evidence during the six-day public hearing in February.
The order was addressed again in further legal submissions after the hearing.
Dr Palmer said regional council staff were still reading the 253-page decision yesterday.
The engineering and hazards committee resolved to return to the full regional council on August 5 with options of what to do next.
That could involve an appeal to the Environment Court and even the ministers of conservation and environment.
• An agreement was reached with Remarkables Park Ltd, which had submitted in opposition of the Resa, to provide for a 19m-wide public road around the runway extension.
The road would be built 5m below the Resa's top service and would link Glenda Dr and Hawthorne Dr, service the ongoing Remarkables and Shotover residential and commercial developments and help spread the load of future traffic increases on State Highway 6.
