Infrastructure, Construction & Developments

[kraktoa]

Used the new security area few times now. Looks impressive, airy and well lit.

One problem though and most passengers were in agreement.

The belt that moves the trays around is far too slow. It takes forever to move along and stops for far too long at a junction where it is directed to 2different lanes. One for further checks and one to be picked up by pax.

So lots of people waiting around for the trays to move up to where they are standing.

Too many mechanical moving parts. They will break a lot.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Used the new security area few times now. Looks impressive, airy and well lit.

One problem though and most passengers were in agreement.

The belt that moves the trays around is far too slow. It takes forever to move along and stops for far too long at a junction where it is directed to 2different lanes. One for further checks and one to be picked up by pax.

So lots of people waiting around for the trays to move up to where they are standing.

Too many mechanical moving parts. They will break a lot.

Looking at the BRS Twitter feed a surprising number of passengers have tweeted their appreciation of the new security area. I say surprising because many people only complain, rarely praise. There are still one or two not happy with the new security though. I shall be using BRS soon for the first time since the western terminal expansion was partially opened, so can judge for myself although my departure time is well out of the peak periods.

 

[kraktoa]

Watch as the trays inch slowly at snails pace towards you. Hope they could speed up the rollers that move the trays.

But the area looks very very good. Shame the large tv screen is still unusable due to water damage.

 

[Aviador]

Watch as the trays inch slowly at snails pace towards you. Hope they could speed up the rollers that move the trays.

But the area looks very very good. Shame the large tv screen is still unusable due to water damage.

You are luck you have rollers moving trays for you. At LBA it's all done by hand. Security staff make thousands of journeys each day moving trays!

The BRS security set up looks amazing.

 

[ezy_brs]

This type of security search is the only one in the world outside of the Netherlands. Amsterdam use exactly the same set up and the manufacturer are priding themselves on it! Apparently you can alter the speeds but as it is new for the staff as well as the passengers, the staff need to get used to it also! At least BRS now looks like a proper airport now!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I travelled out of the airport on Monday, early afternoon on a flight to Glasgow. The airport was busy, but not rammed as it is first thing in the morning - still probably 15-20 aircraft loads in the terminal departure area though. The airport is obviously well able to cater for this sort of volume of people and provide a very acceptable experience (I won't say enjoyable because many people don't enjoy passing through airports no matter how good the service).

The only snag, apart from lingering worries about the very misty weather, was finding a space in the long stay car park. I don't know how many thousand vehicles it holds but I've never seen it so full. We drove to the far end (half a mile at least) and then back a couple of hundred metres before finding a space.Some drivers had abandoned their cars at the side of the car park roadways. Additional car parking space is very clearly needed and the airport has obviously recognised this with its planning application for more interim space pending the building of a multi-storey car park.

As for security, ten out of ten on Monday. The new zone is a very big area with most stations being operated it seemed. One member of staff was directing (very politely) people to the next available station and there were no queues. My wife and I went straight through and the member of staff who dealt with us had good inter-personal skills - he was an older man with a Welsh accent; perhaps appropriate for BRS.👍

We left from gate 9 which is the nearest to the main part of the terminal along the western walkway. People often moan about the 400-metre walk to the far end of the western walkway but the situation is the same at Glasgow Airport, particularly if you use easyJet which we did. It's a very long walk from the main eatery area at GLA to gates 12A, B, C or D which in our experience easyJet seem to use, at least on many of their domestic services. As at BRS there is no moving walkway along that section of GLA.

The return on Thursday was fine. The aircraft was on stand ten minutes ahead of schedule which made up for the half-hour delay northbound on Monday, which the captain blamed partly on the low visibility procedure then in force at BRS as well as a minor tech problem which delayed their southbound journey. The aircraft and crew were GLA-based.

On Thursday evening we parked on the eastern apron towards the old control tower which meant a Cobus ride to the terminal which delayed us perhaps 6-7 minutes. Nevertheless we were still home, nine miles from the airport, within 50 minutes of the aircraft wheels touching the runway.

So all in all BRS and its sometimes maligned infrastructure did everything that could be reasonably be asked of it.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Car Parking

The airport's application to alter already acquired planning consents is being heard today by North Somerset Council. The airport already as planning approval to develop a car park for 5,500 vehicles on green belt land next to the current Silver Zone car park on the south side of the airport. However, the consent is dependent on a multi story car park being built first (on the north side).

The airport is seeking consent to reverse the order of these developments with the green belt land car park being built first (next year).

There was a debate on BBC Radio Bristol this morning in which the airport CEO, Robert Sinclair, and Hilary Burn, chair of the parish councils' airport association, member of the airport consultative committee and long time opponent of unrestricted expansion of the airport took part.

Mr Sinclair said that they would build a multi storey car park in 2018 but in the meantime rapidly expanding passenger numbers meant the green belt car park was becoming necessary. Ms Burn made the not unreasonable point that the airport had known about the need for more car parking since 2012 against an ever increasing number of passengers, and should have built the multi storey car park by now. Mr Sinclair's answer was at that time they would have been "providing a facility our passengers would not want". It wasn't made clear what would change after 2018.

I would assume that a greatly extended south side car parking area would increase the need for shuttle buses that already run the mile or so between airport terminal and Silver Zone car park.

Although I have some sympathy with Ms Burn's argument even she conceded that the green belt car park would happen at some point so in one sense it's an argument over principle and timing.

The local authority has been recommended to approve the airport's application although elected councillors on planning committees don't always follow the advice of their professional planning officers.

Anyone interested can listen to the debate at this link. Click on the sound symbol and then move the pointer to around 01:36:00 into the programme.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p045m1hj

 

[Marko1]

Isn't this the same Mrs burns who was/ is part of the consultative committee though?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Isn't this the same Mrs burns who was/ is part of the consultative committee though?

Yes indeed. I mentioned it above (3rd para). She still is a member and regularly features in the consultative committee minutes. Whilst often disagreeing with her sentiments on many airport-related matters I do respect her sincerity, commitment and passion for a cause that she believes in.

I've just watched the end of a piece on the local tv news and it seems the council has agreed to the airport application. A very put-out Ms Burn was interviewed at the end and said that North Somerset Council now does anything the airport asks and doesn't consult parish councils any more.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/bristo...ace-car-park/story-29718564-detail/story.html

This a link to the newspaper report that confirms the local authority's decision to approve the airport's request to develop the green belt land car park on the south side, in effect an extension of the Silver Zone car park.

 

[superking]

all gone quiet on the hotel. does any one know how its coming along.

 

[kraktoa]

The outer skin of the hotel is all put up therefore you cant see it as a stack of metal containers but actually looks like a building. Its a cream white exterior. Only 2 floors high i think. Unimposing. Looks like a rectangular office block.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The outer skin of the hotel is all put up therefore you cant see it as a stack of metal containers but actually looks like a building. Its a cream white exterior. Only 2 floors high i think. Unimposing. Looks like a rectangular office block.

As a structure it is somewhat underwhelming, although the test will be the comfort and efficiency of the hotel when it opens.

I have to say that apart from the original terminal opened in 2000 which I think is quite a good-looking building (I accept such opinion will always be subjective) the various extensions built since then including the walkways have something of a Lego appearance to my eyes. I can't say I dislike the extensions - they have a certain charm - but I doubt that they would win many prizes for beautiful buildings.

 

[superking]

looking round the airport, with all the buildings every where it looks impressive. how its all changed in the last 10 years.any one that's not visited the airport for a few years would not recanise it. out of all the structures around,only 1 building remains I think,and that is the old terminal building. cant see that standing in 10 years time.it just shows how much money has been spent on development, and can see a lot more money being spent in the next few years as well.

 

[kraktoa]

The old terminal is well past its sell by date. Its crumbling and the toilets are rank beyond comprehension. I think the sewage system is also dodgy as there is a horrible smell of sewage at times. How the senior management spent their time there is a mystery.

As for gutting the place there was a recent tender put out to redo all the iron works on the exterior. So i dont think they are planning on brininging that place down yet.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The expansion planning consents seem to include a new office block away from the current old terminal site together with a walkway around the eastern side of the apron with new parking stands where the old terminal now sits. Logistically I can't see how the old terminal could be demolished before a new office block was built, otherwise the admin staff etc would have to work out of tents in the car park.

The airport management has never varied in its view that 10 mppa will be reached, the only relatively recent caveat being that it might not come quite as quickly as first thought mainly because of the recession a few years ago. Brexit might also play a part but only hindsight will tell us that. The mood music always seemed to be that all the expansion mentioned on the airport's website, including demolition of the old terminal to free up more aircraft parking space, was a necessary precursor to 10 mppa.

It might be that they are now intending to reach 10 mppa without too much more infrastructure expansion, apart presumably from some more aircraft parking stands. The thinking might be that if they are unable to overturn the current planning consents' 10 mppa limit at some point in the future the expense of demolishing the old terminal, building a new office block and an eastern walkway would be a waste of money.

 

[tpm]

North Somerset are applying for multiple millions of funding from the government to do a study into massively upgrading the airport's surface connectivity, with the rationale that the current road network will soon constrain growth at the airport. In this context I find it hard to believe that there is serious concern that they will not be able to secure planning consent for further expansion once they're approaching 10mppa. My layman understanding is that the purpose of these limits is primarily to ensure that the airport will contribute to some of the infrastructure works and such that will be required for further expansion and that other concessions can be extracted from the airport 😉

 

[TheLocalYokel]

BRS certainly contributed a lot of money to the local authority as a 'section 106' contribution, including several million pounds towards the South Bristol link road that's nearing completion, as part of its planning consents. I think the idea of section 106 payments could be construed almost as a bribe to a local authority planning committee.

Sometimes they backfire on the local authority. The organisation building the Finzels Reach development in central Bristol stopped work a few years ago. They told the planning committee that if they had to pay the s 106 money they'd have to stop work completely and the site would fester - they blamed the recession then in full swing.

The council agreed to waive the s 106 payments and the development continued and much of it is now finished.

Like you, I can't see the airport not being given approval to exceed 10 mppa in time but I anticipate a major battle again with the objectors. But in reality how many could the site handle in time? 12-15 mppa is almost certainly the top and may require another terminal southside which would give rise to operational difficulties.

 

[kraktoa]

The new arrivals exit on the west terminal extension ie: new customs channel is to start from Monday afternoon. Arriving passengers will be walking through a lot of plaster boarded passageways before they enter the landside arrivals hall. In the summer they will be greeted by a M&S at the exit.

 

[kraktoa]

As thenew stands are going to be remote stands what exactly does it entail to get them up and running.

Is it measuring and marking the road surface. Is that all or is there more.