After a slog getting paperwork through the CASA (Civil Aviation Safety Authority) approval process, design of the new Glen Innes Flight Academy is about to get underway with Australian Asia Flight Training (AAFT) hoping to now break ground at the site next February.
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AAFT director Neil Hansford said the stringent conditions imposed by CASA did slow down the process but will result in a much-improved community asset, at AAFT’s expense.
“CASA put extra conditions on us that they wouldn’t put on a council,” he said.
“They treated it like it was a new airport, meeting the very latest standards.”
AAFT now has the green light for the $400,000 process to prepare the detailed plans and specifications required by Glen Innes Severn Council in order to receive construction certification. Mr Hansford said although AAFT has the option to use a private certifier, AAFT’s high regard for council’s competency means it is happy to use council’s services, and for council to keep the associated fees up of to $30,000.
The issue of the certification also triggers the $140,000 Section 94 fee that AAFT must pay to council, to be put towards community amenities.
Wauchope-based builder BDM Constructions (which is currently working on the coffee shop renovations at Glen Innes Town Hall) will be undertaking design and drawings for the approval of council’s building surveyors. The site of the academy campus will be surveyed next week by Mitchell Hanlon Consulting of Tamworth on behalf of BDM Constructions, to get levels for all the civil engineering works such as roads and drains.
Mr Hansford hopes to have all the documentation to council by Christmas, and anticipates receiving formal certification around mid-January, given that those preparing the documents will be working closely with council to ensure they’re on-track.
Mr Hansford will attend this month’s council meeting to formally request an extension of the date by which physical construction of the academy must commence. While he intends to push the deadline out to April next year, he hopes to break ground in February, and anticipates a quick build after that.
“The core amenities and 100 beds should be up within seven months of breaking ground,” he said.
The build is a very modular construction, with assembly of the modules now to happen in Glen Innes, providing an additional 20 local jobs not included in original job creation estimates. Mr Hansford said airport hangars would be constructed first, and then the modules would be built on-site in these hangars to avoid having to transport them through town.
He said BDM Constructions is also in the process of interviewing subcontractors such as electricians and plumbers required for the project, and that once the academy is built the setup could be the basis of a modular construction operation based in Glen Innes.
While the modular components made of magnesium oxide sheets come from China as they’re not available in Australian, Mr Hansford reported that BDM Constructions was impressed with the capability of local material suppliers and expects that to continue.
Council workers were undertaking the infrastructure work at the airport, funded by state and federal grants and by AAFT, but have been diverted to the Grey St and other capital projects. Mr Hansford said AAFT was happy for council resources to be redirected to complete the road works as quickly as possible, leading to a pause in construction work on the roadway and car park at the airport, but this will recommence airport construction moves closer.
“People in Glen Innes will one day realise that they have the best council in rural NSW, and I’m very happy to defend them,” Mr Hansford said.
“That little council was able to get a project that much bigger ones couldn’t. Council hasn’t been comprised and neither have we, and it’s because of their professionalism.”
