Thames Airport "UK needs a new airport that can operate 24/7"

The new airport promoters will have to take on vested interests head on and powerfull lobbying groups from the airline industry who will stop at nothing to push through their view of Heathrow as the preferred airport. To complete this study £10,000,000.00 mobilisation fund is required with a total budget of circa £45 billion for the construction of an integrated new airport 100% of this funding could be obtained from SWF's - jdr@nordicpartnership.com

Tuesday 3 September 2013

Foster Island

Boris's plan to replace Heathrow with £65bn Thames Estuary airport are as 'grandiose as Hitler's', says leading architect

Mayor unveils his preferred options to expand UK's aviation capacity
Sir Terry Farrell labels ideas 'mad' and compared it to Hitler's grand plans
Mr Johnson has backed away from his plan for 'Boris Island' in Thames
Now Boris favours 'Foster Island' airport on Isle of Grain in Kent
He says anyone who believes Heathrow should be expanded is 'crackers'
Stansted could also be expanded from two to four runways in 'compromise'

By MARTIN ROBINSON and RAY MASSEY

PUBLISHED: 09:58, 15 July 2013 | UPDATED: 09:55, 16 July 2013

A leading architect has compared Boris Johnson’s plans for a Thames Estuary airport to the grandiose projects Adolf Hitler might have dreamed up.

Sir Terry Farrell, who designed the MI6 spy building, said the London Mayor’s plan for a £65billion airport was ‘mad’.

Sir Terry said: ‘When people say that you have got to have vision, well Hitler had vision.

'Vision can be a madness where you get so obsessed you throw everything you have got on the roulette table and hope you got it right.’ Hitler famously had his architect Albert Speer draw up plans on an epic scale for a radically re-designed Berlin – to be renamed ‘Germania’.

Vision: Foster Island (pictured) on the Isle of Grain has been backed by the Mayor of London above his own Boris Island plan because of its proximity to London

Vision: Foster Island (pictured) on the Isle of Grain has today been backed by the Mayor of London above his own Boris Island plan because of its proximity to London

Argument: Announcing his three preferred options for aviation expansion Boris said today that building a new runway at Heathrow would be 'crackers'

All change: Boris Johnson's plans for a new airport would demand that Heathrow is bought and replaced with a 250,000 new London borough

Sir Terry, who has designed some of the world’s largest airports and train stations, including Charing Cross, said the four-runway proposal was on an unprecedented scale for the UK and made the HS2 high-speed rail project ‘look like chicken feed’.

Mr Johnson yesterday underlined his commitment to an estuary airport by naming Sir Norman Foster’s Isle of Grain plan as his first choice.

The Mayor also wants to shut Heathrow at a cost of £15billion to create a new London borough for 250,000 residents.

But Sir Terry, who is working on Gatwick’s bid to build a second runway, said closing Heathrow and moving the capital city’s main airport to the east would mean ‘flipping London’.

Sir Terry was approached by the Mayor to work on his project but turned it down.

Announcing his three preferred options to expand aviation capacity in the UK this morning, he ruled out a 'crackers' third runway at Heathrow and demanded a new airport east of London or the expansion of Stansted instead.

Mr Johnson said: 'Ambitious cities all over the world are already stealing a march on us and putting themselves in a position to eat London's breakfast, lunch and dinner by constructing mega airports that plug them directly into the global supply chains that we need to be part of.

'Those cities have moved heaven and earth to locate their airports away from their major centres of population, in areas where they have been able to build airports with four runways or more.

'For London and the wider UK to remain competitive we have to build an airport capable of emulating that scale of growth. Anyone who believes there would be the space to do that at Heathrow, which already blights the lives of hundreds of thousands of Londoners, is quite simply crackers.'

He also admitted that Boris Island might be a 'bit far away' from London and said that Foster Island was his preferred option.

New favourite idea: Boris has backed the four-runway 'Foster Island' (pictured) in the Thames Estuary airport, which would be capable of handling up to 180million passengers a year on the Isle of Grain in Kent

Elaborate plan: The Isle of Grain's proposed international railway station, which would include a service to Waterloo in 26 minutes

Once shut down, any Heathrow buyout would be bank-rolled by the Government and the Mayor's aviation adviser Daniel Moylan has said its rail, road and Tube links would make it an ideal place for a new development on the western edge of the capital.

BORIS JOHNSON'S THREE BIG IDEAS

'FOSTER ISLAND': The inner estuary site on Kent's Isle of Grain is close enough to London to provide smooth and fast access by public transport, yet ideally located so as to allow take-off and landing over water and so impact on as small a population as possible.

It sits in an area with a strong industrial history, and is across the water from the new DP World London Gateway Port. A new hub airport there would lay the foundation for a future logistics heartland of the UK.

'BORIS ISLAND': An airport on an artificial island off the Kent coast would remove all problems of noise pollution and give the airport the freedom to operate in whatever way it needed in order to maximise the UK’s connectivity and economic benefits.

STANSTED EXPANSION: Developing a major four-runway airport at Stansted would have the attraction of building on existing infrastructure and being sited in a relatively sparsely populated region, Stansted has none of the environmental or wildlife issues that would need to be overcome in the estuary.

'For an airport, that is not very good connectivity. But most outer London boroughs would bite your hand off for transport links like that,' he said.

But Heathrow bosses say shutting down their airport would cost almost 80,000 jobs, the biggest cull since Britain's coal mine closures during the 1980s.

'It seems extraordinary that any Mayor of London would propose forcibly buying and then closing Heathrow. The Mayor's proposals would leave 114,000 people facing redundancy, cost taxpayers more and take longer to deliver than building on the strength we already have at Heathrow,' a spokesman said.

This morning Mr Johnson announced that 'Foster Island', 'Boris Island' or the expansion of Stansted airport would be the three best ways to solve Britain's lack of aviation capacity.

Mr Johnson's plans will be submitted later this week to the Government-appointed Airport Commission headed by Sir Howard Davies, who will help the Government make the final decision.

Mr Johnson said that a new hub airport would be able to support more than 375,000 new jobs by 2050 and add £742billion to the value of goods and services produced in the UK.

He said it could be built by 2029, with a hybrid bill being passed by parliament to secure approval for the airport, the surface access and the acquisition of Heathrow.

Two ideas: This graphic shows how planners have designed two new airports on the Thames, one on the edge of Isle of Grain or the Boris Island idea in the middle of the estuary

Two ideas: This graphic shows how planners have designed two new airports on the Thames, one on the edge of Isle of Grain nicknamed 'Foster Island' and the 'Boris Island' proposal in the middle of the estuary

Talking about the future of the Heathrow area should a new airport be sited elsewhere, Mr Johnson said that part of west London, with good transport links, had the space and infrastructure to generate up to 100,000 new homes that London badly needed.

There was the potential to attract tens of thousands of jobs in a number of different sectors and while some workers at Heathrow would relocate to the new airport, many others would find work in a newly-developed Heathrow area.

'Cities have moved heaven and earth to locate airports in areas where they have been able to build airports with four runways or more. Anyone who believes there would be the space to do that at Heathrow is quite simply crackers.'

- Mayor of London Boris Johnson

Mr Johnson's chief adviser on aviation, Daniel Moylan, said: 'Heathrow can never solve our problems and our studies show that we're better off with a new site.

'The immense noise, pollution and congestion that would result from expanding an airport located in the heart of our suburbs would potentially devastate the greatest city in the world.'

The mayor's original preferred plan had been nicknamed Boris Island in his honour as he has championed the idea to build it on an artificial island made of landfill.

It would be two miles north of the Isle of Sheppey and ferries would link the site to Kent and Essex while a railway bridge could connect it to the mainland.

If the Isle of Grain plan happens the scheme is expected to be designed by eminent architect Lord Foster and an airport would have a minimum of four runways, with space to build two more.

Vision: This is what Stansted could look like it it was turned into a four-runway superhub

Vision: This is what Stansted Airport could look like if it was turned into a four-runway superhub (design above and plan below)

Marches: Celebrities including chef Jamie Oliver have joined protest to prevent Stansted growing in any way

The entire project would cost about £65 billion, including a new train line taking passengers to Waterloo in 26 minutes.

Planes would descend over the North Sea rather than densely populated parts of London, as many do when coming in to Heathrow.

Mr Johnson now says that the Isle of Grain plan has the 'greatest single potential for regeneration'.

The blueprint involves an opening scheduled for 2029, requiring infrastructure improvements such as extending Crossrail and widening the M25 an extra lane in each direction for 36 miles.

Ongoing fight: A longstanding campaign has been fought to prevent a third Heathrow runway, but if airports move to the east of the London, tens of thousands will lose their jobs

On top of those three suggestions, Heathrow will be revealing its own plans to expand with a third and maybe even fourth runway.

The Mayor also argues that Stansted could be transformed into a four-runway international super-airport as part of a 'compromise' package.

A super high speed rail link - cutting the journey time to London to 25 minutes - would also be built to support its growth.

But it will still be highly controversial as proposals for a second runway there have already led to years of protests from people living under its flighpath.

Stansted has been targeted by many protests including one where more than 50 people burst onto its runway and shut it down for more than five hours.

Celebrities including Jamie Oliver have also joined other protests.

Wednesday 31 July 2013

New Thames Estuary airport 'easily affordable'

A new four-runway airport on the Isle of Grain in north Kent would need up to £45bn of net government spending over nine years but is “easily affordable”, it was today claimed, as Boris Johnson set out his plan to solve Britain’s aviation crisis.

The Mayor of London backed a new airport in the inner Thames Estuary which could open in 2029, as he attacked ministers for “sitting around like puddings” and doing “nothing” as rival cities abroad build vast airports in an attempt to win a greater slice of global trade.

Mr Johnson is submitting three proposals to a Government-appointed Airports Commission, although he suggested a development on the Isle of Grain would strike the best balance between economic benefits and reducing the negative effects of aviation on local communities and the environment.

The plans, to be submitted this week, also include transforming Stansted “out of all recognition” and a new airport built on an artificial island in the outer Thames Estuary off the Kent coast – a project dubbed “Boris Island” after it received early backing from the Mayor.

Britain has “squandered decades” by failing to make a decision over where to build new runways in the South East, Mr Johnson claimed. That indecision means “other countries are eating our lunch” when it comes to growing business and connections with the rest of the world, he warned.

In addition to building a new airport to the east of London by 2029, the Mayor proposes that the Government spends £15bn of taxpayers’ money to buy Heathrow, close the airport and regenerate the area by building up to 100,000 new homes. However, Daniel Moylan, the Mayor’s chief adviser on aviation, admitted it could take up to 25 years to completely regenerate the area around Heathrow.

Mr Johnson on Monday fired the first shot in what is likely to become an increasingly bitter battle over the future of aviation in this country, as Heathrow prepares to publish its proposals for expansion tomorrow.

Heathrow will also present the Airports Commission, led by former Financial Services Authority boss Sir Howard Davies, with several options where it could build a third runway, and eventually even a fourth.

The Mayor’s camp argued that the eventual cost to the taxpayer of expanding Heathrow is unlikely to be vastly better than the price tag for a brand-new hub airport, which would have a “trivial” impact on the local population by comparison.

Extra surface transport links would need to be built to accommodate a four-runway Heathrow, Mr Moylan said – a burden that would fall on the taxpayer.

A new hub would require £4bn-£5bn of net government spend per year between 2019 and 2028 — a period when it is proposed the taxpayer will also have to pay out for the proposed High Speed 2 rail project. But backers say the Thames Estuary airport would be sold as a “going concern” to private investors, while the taxpayer could also recoup money through the sale of land around Heathrow to housing developers. “It [a new hub airport] is certainly affordable in the context of Government expenditure of £700bn per annum,” Mr Moylan said.

The Isle of Grain airport would be located on agricultural land next to the Thames Estuary. A new high-speed rail line would have to be built to transport passengers from central London to the airport in less than half an hour and the plans include extending the Crossrail project from Abbey Wood to reach the hub. The M25 would also need to be “enhanced” while the airport could be connected to train services from the Midlands and northern England by the proposed HS2 route.

According to an investigation carried out by Transport for London, the Isle of Grain airport would support 388,000 jobs on the whole, including 134,000 directly at the airport, and permanently add 0.5pc per annum to GDP by improving connectivity for UK businesses.

The airport would initially handle 90m passengers year but eventually double that number would pass through its doors. About 31,500 people would be affected by noise from the Isle of Grain hub compared to 766,000 at Heathrow at present.

Mr Johnson said the debate on runway expansion had been a difficult issue for “all sorts of leaders” and “nobody has grasped it”.

“Why don’t we get on with it?” he said. “I simply want to exhort people in this Government to do something … You can’t endlessly push this into the long grass.”

The Mayor has repeatedly clashed with the Prime Minister David Cameron and George Osborne, the Chancellor, over the issue of air capacity. The Government was last year accused of kicking the debate into the long grass by announcing a commission to discuss potential solutions, which will not deliver its final findings until 2015.

Mr Johnson said expanding Heathrow would be “nuts” and also discounted a “dual hub” solution, involving an extra runway at Gatwick, which would do “absolutely little or nothing to increase connectivity,” the Mayor added.

Monday 24 June 2013

Response to Transport Select Committee Report

Press release 10 May 2013

Response to Transport Select Committee Report

 The Transport Select Committee’s recommendation is to investigate a 4-runway airport at Heathrow. In Policy Exchange’s report this will mean building a brand new airport over the M25 west of Heathrow.

 West London’s transport is already at capacity and could not support a major airport of the size proposed without substantial public infrastructure investment.

 This airport will not address the crucial problem of noise pollution for Londoners.  Large aircraft cannot land using steep approach proposed and will be concentrated on one runway,

exacerbating noise pollution.

 The proposals for steeper descents can only be applied to smaller aircraft.

 Airport design proposed by Policy Exchange, quoted in TSC report, not technically feasible, airport footprint will need to be larger than drawn to accommodate wide-bodied aircraft.

 Detailed costs have not been given for comparison with other solutions – adding a 3rd runway to Heathrow was costed at £10bn alone.

Notes

We welcome the fact that the Transport Select Committee recognises the need for increased hub capacity and that this can only be provided at one airport.

The Committee believes that a new a 4-runway Hub at Heathrow should be considered. This would mean building a brand new airport four kilometres to the west of Heathrow, sitting over the M25 and a major reservoir. This is one of the most congested parts of the country and construction would have to take place under the flight path of the busiest airport in Europe.

Proposals for Heathrow have been made by Policy Exchange in their ‘Bigger and Quieter: The right answer for aviation’ report.

We do not believe a 4-runway airport to the west of Heathrow would fit within the footprint being outlined in Policy Exchange’s report. They have not recognised that the location of Terminal 5 restricts the positioning of twin taxi ways alongside the northern runways to incorporate Code F wide wing-span aircraft (A380). Consequently the position of the runways would have to move further north, significantly affecting the villages of Longford and Colnbrook.

The runway lengths shown in the Policy Exchange report are 3,000m; aircraft manufacturer’s minimum lengths for Heathrow are 2,850m. We believe a margin for abnormal conditions would require a minimum

For further information

please contact Katy Harris at Foster + Partners, T +44 (0)20 7738 0455 F +44 (0)20 7738 1107

E press@fosterandpartners.comlength of 3,500m. Therefore the whole airport footprint would need to be larger, necessitating the total closure of one reservoir and a substantial reduction in size of a further two.

Diverting or burying 10 lanes of the M25 in this area (its busiest section) whilst keeping it operational will be enormously complex, disruptive and costly.

The report says that noise reduction can be achieved by aircraft descending more steeply to land. Though this may be practical for a small number of narrow bodied aircraft it is not possible for the wider bodied aircraft which are inherently attracted to a Hub. These larger aircraft will need to use a shallow descent on one of the runways and will therefore generate continuous noise pollution to millions of Londoners.

The cost of building an efficient, competitive, 4-runway Hub at Heathrow has not been quantified. In contrast, our proposals for a Thames Estuary airport have been fully costed at £24bn, including transport proposals to support an opening capacity of 84 mppa and allowing growth to 110 mppa, with future capacity up to 150mppa. There is no proof offered that a new airport in the east would be more expensive than a brand new one at Heathrow. We believe a new airport to the east would be cheaper to build and cheaper to provide transport to. It will also unlock substantial regeneration opportunities to the east of London.

We believe these proposals to expand aviation capacity at Heathrow are ill-founded technically and would perpetuate unacceptable environmental impacts on Londoners. They are therefore not the right answer. Now is the time to look for a long term answer which minimises impacts and guarantees maximum future potential and flexibility.

-Ends-

For further information

please contact Katy Harris at Foster + Partners, T +44 (0)20 7738 0455 F +44 (0)20 7738 1107

E press@fosterandpartners.com

Foster & Partners has hit back after MPs dismissed their plans for an airport in the Thames estuary as “unacceptable”.

Norman Foster and Boris Johnson dismiss MPs' Heathrow report

10 May 2013 | Updated: 10 May 2013 6:37 pm | By Elizabeth Hopkirk

Boris warns London developers over land-banking

23 May 2013
Foster & Partners submits City Road towers plan

15 May 2013
Foster to submit airport plan to government commission

5 March 2013
Zaha Hadid appointed to Boris's airports review

7 February 2013
Bartlett professor helps set test for London mega airport

11 January 2013
Foster & Partners defends estuary airport plans

19 December 2012

RELATED FILES

Foster & Partners' response to the transport select committee

PDF

Transport committee ‘failed to consider cost of burying M25 and extending Tube’

Foster & Partners has hit back after MPs dismissed their plans for an airport in the Thames estuary as “unacceptable”.

The House of Commons transport select committee has issued a report that firmly backs an expanded Heathrow.

It urges the government to press ahead with a third runway in west London and to consider a fourth.

It dismisses an east-of-London option on the grounds that it would require too much investment in transport infrastructure, would lead to the “unacceptable” closure of Heathrow and would have a potentially substantial impact on wildlife in the Thames estuary.

But proponents of an eastern hub airport – who include Foster & Partners, Gensler and Mayor of London Boris Johnson – were swift to rubbish the report.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Johnson said a third runway at Heathrow would be obsolete as soon as it was built and that a four-runway hub was the only realistic option. This would have to be built slightly west of Heathrow’s existing location, he said.

“It would probably be cheaper to move London slightly to the east,” he quipped.

“What the Heathrow-ites fail to be quite clear about is there would be tremendous amount of new transport infrastructure necessitated by such a huge project, the cost of which would be directly comparable [with that needed to support a Thames estuary airport].”

Fosters put out a detailed statement (see attachment) which concluded: “We believe these proposals to expand aviation capacity at Heathrow are ill-founded technically and would perpetuate unacceptable environmental impacts on Londoners. They are therefore not the right answer.

“Now is the time to look for a long-term answer which minimises impacts and guarantees maximum future potential and flexibility.”