Second airport draft plan lands
The Federal Government has provided some more details on the plans for Sydney’s second airport at Badgerys Creek.
The draft plan makes some bold claims, including that the aircraft noise from the airport would be about the same as a car travelling on a suburban street.
Federal Minister for Infrastructure Warren Truss released the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and the draft Airport Plan for the Western Sydney Airport on Monday.
The EIS also claims that the airport will not negatively impact the Blue Mountains World Heritage area, even though it is just a few kilometres away, Mr Truss said.
He said surrounding communities would not fall victim to excessive noise levels, such as those that prompted a massive home insulation scheme for houses near Sydney Airport in Mascot.
“Indicative flight paths would indicate that when they reach the Penrith CBD [about 13 kilometres away], aircraft are likely to be above 5,000 feet,” Mr Truss said.
“This would mean a noise level below 70 decibels - that's equivalent to the noise that you would hear from a passenger car travelling on a suburban road.”
If the Badgerys Creek airport open as planned in 2025, it will feature a single 3.7 kilometre runway.
The designers say it should be enough to land all the latest international and domestic aircraft, including A380s and B777s.
Mr Truss said the airport would be connected only by road links at first, until there are enough passengers to justify building a rail link.
“Unquestionably, as the airport grows to a much larger scale, when it reaches a stage when there's 80 million passengers, it's clearly going to need rail access,” he said.
A future rail corridor has already been reserved in the plan.
Mr Truss said the airport would bring a stream of new jobs to Western Sydney, through both the construction and operations when it is built.
The government says the project will create 3,000 construction jobs by 2022, and up to 9,000 by 2031.
The Government has opened the draft plan for 60 days of public comment, which is over twice the time normally allowed for feedback.
The Sydney Business Chamber's Western Sydney Director David Borger said business leaders were excited about the expected employment boost
“More than 20 million cubic metres of soil will need to be removed from the site and levelled - that will take over six years, so this site is going to be known as the 'big dig' for the next decade,” he said.
“That's going to be great news for all of those construction workers in Western Sydney that are able to take part in the construction phase.”