Infrastructure, Construction & Developments

[superking]

so true in what you say on all points.
back in the les wilson days, he always had a spot on radio bristol breakfast prog every week.
he would say what was going on at the airport, and also if any unusual aircraft was due in the next week.
always looked forward to that spot, and it sure misses it.between les and roger bennett they were both mr brs airport in different ways.sadly both passed away. memories.

 

[kraktoa]

The goods and staffentrance point is moving from the western side (by the free 10 minute drop off car park) to the eastern side by the new extension. Work is in full swing and should be commissioned by the end of july. Mainly pre fab with loading and unloading bays for all goods sold airside to be checked by security xray machines.

Welcome upgrade to a building that was unsightly , albeit out of the way.

 

[tpm]

I was wondering: what's the situation like in terms of aircraft stands? How many aircraft are parked at the airport overnight on a typical day? And how much more space is there to accommodate additional jets? At first glance it doesn't look like there will be any additional stands on the eastern side of the apron, so is the few extra stands they built a while back on the western side all there is? Will it be enough for the next couple of years?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I was wondering: what's the situation like in terms of aircraft stands? How many aircraft are parked at the airport overnight on a typical day? And how much more space is there to accommodate additional jets? At first glance it doesn't look like there will be any additional stands on the eastern side of the apron, so is the few extra stands they built a while back on the western side all there is? Will it be enough for the next couple of years?

Part of this was raised last November and I posted the following.

Someone on another website was asking about the number of based aircraft at BRS next summer and the number of stands.

I believe that currently the aircraft numbers should be something like this but I'm not sure how many stands there are now.

easyJet 12 x A319/320

Ryanair 4 x B 738

Thomson 2 x B 752 and 1 x B 738

Thomas Cook 2 x A 321

bmi regional 4/5? x E 135/145 including the one operating for Brussels Airlines (also one on the South Side for the Airbus corporate shuttle?)

Also a KLM E 190 nightstopping

Can anyone add anything or modify this?

ezy_brs responded with the following post.

indeed there are 28 usable stands. The poster on the other forum is myself

there may appear to be more on paper but because of wing-tip clearances that has to be considered, usable stands is 28. So it is very limited with what we can park at BRS. But like I said on another forum, I feel that the stands could be much better utilised during the day at BRS rather than just focusing on the night-stoppers. But thats just my thoughts!

When the eastern walkway is put in place and the current admin block (old terminal) demolished the airport's plans show a number of new stands there but that's not likely to be for at least a couple of years I would imagine.

 

[big g]

On a good night there will be 2 spare stands, that all depends on what BMI are doing with positioning and charter aircraft, last night there were 7 night stopping BMI's.

But in the event of major diverts the the airport could take an additional 9 aircraft 4, parked in the cut-de-sac's and 5 parked behind stands 22-26. It would be a nightmare parking them in departure order but it can and has been done, I have a photo from a few years back when 4 FR 738's diverted in and parked tail to tail along stands 22-25.

If you look at the airport NOTAM's they say no diverts accepted but only for emergencies, but that can be over ruled. There were a few last month that had to park in the cup-de-sac.

I believe they are pushing to extend the Weston apron in the winter creating 3 more stands.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

On site hotel

Has any work actually started on this at the airport? I drove around the western end of the airport on the A2 bus this week and couldn't see anything obvious going on. The road system near where the free drop-off car park used to be located has been altered with a roundabout introduced, and beyond and to the left of this roundabout (coming from the direction of Downside Road) there seems to have been some clearance work undertaken with a large pile of rubble along one side.

There is also work going on at the western end of the terminal between it and the current (paid) drop-off car park. I take it this is preparatory work for the western terminal extension.

The traffic lights at the junction of Downside Road with the A38 that were installed many weeks ago are still not switched on.

 

[kraktoa]

The groundwork for the hotel is going on. Have been told everything is on schedule.

The lights were on last week for a brief period. It resulted in tailbacks in the airport and A38. I think realisation has struck that maybe a roundabout at that junction would have been better.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The groundwork for the hotel is going on. Have been told everything is on schedule.

The lights were on last week for a brief period. It resulted in tailbacks in the airport and A38. I think realisation has struck that maybe a roundabout at that junction would have been better.

Many thanks, kraktoa.

Traffic lights are not unknown for making situations worse at junctions; or often the phasing does.

50 years ago there used to be cumbersome rubber pads laid across and set into the carriageway just before traffic lights to calculate the number of vehicles using the various roads controlled by those lights at any particular time. The traffic lights phasing was then automatically adjusted to take account of the traffic flows.

There is a tale, possibly apochryphal, of a former chief constable of the erstwhile Bristol Constabulary taking the same route to his office each morning and ordering that a constable be placed at traffic lights to jump on the rubber pads as his (the chief constable's) vehicle approached to ensure the lights would be on green.

Today's lights presumably have some modern, highly technical version of the rubber pads but they never seem to be so efficient. I can give many examples in Bristol itself where the traffic lights on the main road remain at red whilst the side road is on green but there is no traffic on the side road (taking into account that many lights at junctions have pedestrian crossing buttons included).

 

[kraktoa]

Traffic lights have indeed become a nuisance. The traffic now builds up right outside the main terminal road. The traffic joining this road are taxis who have picked up passengers from the terminal, cars using the 10 min drop off zone and vehicles coming in from Backwell. Bendy buses picking passengers from terminal to take them to silver zone. Plus cars exiting the short stay car parks in front of the terminal.

The buildup is because of the new lights. No doubt about it. It cannot go on.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

As is so often the case with traffic engineering, one problem is addressed but it then creates another. It is no doubt now much easier for traffic to exit Downside Road onto the A38, but at an apparent cost of increased congestion along the airport approaches/exits.

 

[superking]

what a total disaster these traffic lights. i came out from bristol this afternoon and joined the traffic jam at the bottom of the hill by the barrow gurney lights.
it took me 25 mins to get to the airport roundabout.
i just wonder how many have missed or were late for their flights.

 

[kraktoa]

Staff getting into the airport have to now leave 30 mins early to make sure they clock in on time. Those staff that have to park in the silver zone have a double whammy of this....when they get to the airport in their car and then on the bus from silver zone.

This is going to be a disaster.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I was driving the opposite way along the A 38 this afternoon and passed the outbound queue stretching back to the bottom of Barrow Hill on the A 38.

The Flyers were running up to 30 minutes late. There was a long queue waiting at the airport for the South Wales National Express coach and the Bath Air Deckers were struggling to keep to any sort of schedule.

Not only did the new traffic lights help to cause this congestion but the A 4 Portway was closed this afternoon because of a 'police incident' (per Evening Post) and the A 4 further east was jammed between Newton St Loe on the edge of Bath and Brislington on the edge of Bristol.

If the new lights are causing these sorts of problems for staff has the airport management made any comment to its employees as to what it intends doing to address the matter with the local authority?

 

[kraktoa]

The airport is passing the buck to the council afaik.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/at-the- ... t+(Rewards)

The AspirePlus lounge is now open. It's available for adults only and has a dress code, although it seems a fairly relaxed one.

An introductory price of £29.99 is offered which is a fair bit more than the Aspire Lounge which caters for adults and children. However, looking at the menu for the Plus lounge there is a much more extensive range of food.

 

[superking]

kept clear of the a38 today. had radio on and traffic report stated long delay from bristol to the airport.dont know if its been on a traffic report before as not heard it. it was on a national radio station, saturday afternoon.
can only think things must be bad there to be on a national radio traffic report.
i think some body is going to think again as what can be done.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The M 5 was closed this afternoon following a road traffic accident and traffic was diverted via the A 38. The closure was north of Bristol but the Evening Post says the A 38 was used as a diversion without making it clear which length of the A 38 was used although the same report spoke of traffic blocked as far as Bridgwater.

Whether this contributed to today's delays between city and airport is unclear. What does seem certain is that the new lights won't have helped.

There have been occasions in the past when the M5 has been closed near Bristol following a road accident leading to the entire city region becoming gridlocked as drivers sought other ways of travelling between M5 and M4.

If these lights aren't sorted out quickly the complaints from late arriving passengers will escalate, not to mention the inconvenience of those working at the airport.

Addendum

It seems that today's problems were exacerbated by a road accident involving a motor cycle near the airport. There seems to have been a lot of road accidents in the general area in recent months.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Turning Circles

In the past it's been accepted that BRS would need turning circles at the end of the runway in order to operate anything larger than the Boeing 767 as the wings of larger aircraft, including the B 787 and A 350, would overhang the fence of the full length parallel taxiway immediately outside which is a public road.

A poster then suggested (some time ago) that a solution had been found to operate the 787 without the need for turning circles.

Does anyone know if turning circles would still be required and, if so, the progress (if any) being made to bring them into use?

 

[ljm104]

Hi all, haven't posted here for a while but looks like lots of good things are happening at BRS these days.

I noticed there is a new animation relating to the western terminal extension. Looks like the security area will be vastly improved. No sign of how the outside will look in terms of aesthetics, but from the video it doesn't look like the attractive glass fronted design seen in the original videos will feature.

See:
http://youtu.be/qnUmO3fA06Q

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Many thanks for drawing our attention to the video.

I've never believed in fast track security. It always seems to me that airports are profiteering from terrorism. They should have enough staff and facilities for everyone to be processed efficiently.

The BRS owners have certainly continued to spend huge amounts of money (for an airport of this size) and there is no doubt that passenger facilities have improved enormously in recent times. I've used the central pier and walkway (opened last year) and was impressed. I've not used the airport since the eastern extension was completed this summer but will put that right very soon.

The western extension for which foundations are already being dug out does seem to be solely for security re departing passengers and baggage reclaim for arrivals. Whilst any improvement in both these facilities will be most welcome the video seems to depict two floors with low ceilings: the fast track and central search (presumably) on the first floor and the baggage reclaim and arrivals on the ground floor. If that is so and nothing else is planned the low ceilings on both floors suggest a very squat structure.

What should undoubtedly be a much better experience for passengers will still depend (for arriving passengers) on the the efficiency of the Border Agency in fielding a sufficient number of staff that is commensurate with the number of passengers arriving at any one time. I realise that delays and diversions mean this is not an exact science but any dilatoriness on the part of the Border Agency will undo all the good work put in by the airport at considerable expense with its infrastructure extensions.

That is outside the control of the airport authorities but ensuring that the security teams are fully staffed is certainly something that is in the gift of the airport.