A major redevelopment of the Hawke’s Bay Airport is underway with Arrow International announced as the lead construction contractor.
Hawke’s Bay Airport Acting CE Jeanette Yule said Arrow International has a strong local track record including projects such as the Napier Police Station, Te Pania Hotel and ABB, which is a tenant at the Airport Business Park.
Arrow will begin stage 1 construction early in the new year.
Arrow has experience in delivering Airport related construction projects including the Queenstown Airport, completed in 2007 and the Dunedin Airport in 2008. Both projects were more than $30m. The firm is currently building a new $36m hotel at the Wellington Airport.
“We have been impressed with Arrow International’s local work such as ABB. They have put together a great team of local sub-contractors for this project and we have every confidence that the new look terminal will be fully operational by the last quarter of 2019,” Ms Yule said.
Chris Goldsbury, Arrow’s General Manager for the Central Region says the company is thrilled to partner the airport team to deliver this highly important infrastructure for the people and businesses of Hawke’s Bay.
“The project will be a true team effort, with Hawke’s Bay Airport’s staff, designers and consultants all working closely with Arrow and our subcontractors to ensure the project runs smoothly.
“Community engagement will be hugely important, we love a challenge, and rallying the right people together to deliver demanding projects in all sorts of different environments. We’ll need all the support we can get from the Hawke’s Bay community – airport users, staff, airlines, visitors, business operators and especially the high level of skills, expertise and capability within the local construction supply chain. This will very much be a local project, built by and for local people,” Mr Goldsbury said.
He added that Arrow is approaching the project very differently to ‘usual’ construction work, by treating the airport’s operational continuity and ease of use for the public as the top priority and driving factor in all planning and carrying out of construction work.
Overseeing the Expansion is local project manager, Steve Birkhead of Integrating Architecture, who has been involved since June 2017 managing the completion of the design phase, tendering the project and will now oversee the construction of the new terminal.
Mr Birkhead said the staged construction project will be challenging and will require operational changes to be made throughout the project.
“We are aiming to keep the airport operating on a business as usual basis. There are sure to be minor disruptions but our aim is to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible,” said Mr Birkhead.
The design enables future growth with the majority of the complex design elements in the centre of the building, making additional expansion to the north simple and cost-efficient.
The multi-million dollar 3800m2 expanded terminal is needed due to strong passenger growth and the resulting demands on existing airport infrastructure. In the last two year’s passenger movements have risen 37 percent to 652,000 passengers.
“We have had exponential growth over the last couple of years due to a significant increase in airline capacity, driven by the arrival of a second airline in Jetstar and Air New Zealand switching to larger capacity aircrafts, all of which has created competition for passengers and enabled growth of the region’s business and tourism sectors.”
“The airport is a major gateway for the region, so as well as catering for increased passengers and visitors, the expansion is also about enhancing their experience,” Ms Yule said.
A new entranceway at the intersection of Watchman Road, SH2 and Meeanee Quay continues to progress well and is scheduled for completion by September 2018.