Written Answers. - State Airports.
Pat Breen
Ceist:
479
Mr. P. Breen
asked the
Minister for Transport
further to Question No. 342 of 18 November 2003, the reason he is proposing to introduce public safety zones specifically for public safety purposes when, as confirmed in his reply, red zones, as projected onto maps, have been used in the past and are still being used for the same precise purpose; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[30841/03]
Obstacle clearance surfaces, which are based on the recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO, are designed to protect the safety of aircraft as they land and take off by ensuring that there are no obstacles in their way. Projection of these obstacle clearance surfaces onto maps, to create so-called red zones, have informed the deliberations of the relevant planning authorities in Ireland as to the public safety implications of developments at or near airports.
Using the latest risk assessment techniques relating to public safety generally, the purpose of the study conducted by Environmental Resource Management, ERM, was to determine the best public safety zones for Irelands principal airports. That report, being considered by the Minister for Transport and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, concludes that zones of a different size and shape to the red zones are more appropriate for the protection of the public on the ground.
Pat Breen
Ceist:
480
Mr. P. Breen
asked the
Minister for Transport
the precise date that red safety areas were formally established at either end of runways 17/35 and 07/25 at Cork Airport; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[30842/03]
I refer the Deputy to my reply to Question No. 340 on 18th November 2003, when I stated:
As I mentioned in previous replies to the House on 1 July 2003, the present red zones at Dublin Airport were formally established in 1968. I understand that the red zones at Cork and Shannon were drawn up around the same time. The then Department of Transport and Power was originally responsible for proposing the establishment of the zones which were approved and incorporated in the local authorities' development plans, and development within those red zones is controlled by the local authorities through the Planning Acts.
I should describe for the Deputy precisely what the red zones are and how they differ from public safety zones and protected areas. International civil aviation operates under the 1944 Chicago Convention, which is administered by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO. Annex 14 of the convention, which prescribes standards for aerodromes, recommends that certain pathways through the air on approaches to runways should be clear of obstacles at certain heights, depending on how far away they are from the runway. These are known as obstacle clearance surfaces, and are imaginary slopes in the air extending away from the ends of runways. They were designed for the protection of aircraft taking off and landing as an aid to safe navigation. If those slopes in the air are, on a map, projected onto the ground, they form a trapezoid shape with the narrow base at the end of the runway.
Those shapes have been coloured red on maps for ease of identification, and have therefore been known as red zones. The current dimensions of the red zones were established in 1968 and were notified to the local authorities on whose land the State airports are situated. While the width of the red zones was the same as the projection onto the ground of the obstacle limitation surfaces, the length of the red zones was delineated by the officials of the then Department of Transport and Power at specific distances from the runway, which varied by runway orientation, by airport, and by projected air traffic density. In delineating the length of the red zones in particular, the then Department was seeking to assist the local authorities to have regard to the dimension of public safety in the vicinity of the airports, that is, the safety of people on the ground, living or working underneath an approaching or departing aircraft.
In Ireland, as elsewhere, these zones have been used as a basis for restricting development to limit the numbers of people on the ground who may be killed or injured by a crashing aircraft. Public safety zones are different in that they are zones that are specifically designed with a view to protecting the public on the ground and they have a substantially different size and shape from red zones. Public safety is not covered by an ICAO standard. The Department of Transport, in conjunction with the then Department of the Environment and Local Government, commissioned consultants to make recommendations for such public safety zones in the vicinity of Cork, Dublin and Shannon airports. The recommendations of the consultants, ERM, specifically deal with the risk to people on the ground, and make use of the latest techniques in risk assessment.
That study is now complete and was formally presented to me and the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government on 30 September 2003. In preparing their report the consultants engaged in a comprehensive public consultation, including holding public meetings in Cork, Dublin and Shannon during the summer. The intention now is that the Department for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government will issue planning guidelines based on the public safety zones identified in the consultants report to the local authorities to assist them in their consideration of the public safety aspects of planning applications in the vicinity of airports.
I should also point out that the obstacle clearance surfaces are not affected by the report by ERM. Those surfaces will continue to be a matter for the IAA which will be responsible solely for advising the planning authorities in relation to the aviation operational safety implications associated with particular proposals-planning applications. In future it will be a matter for the IAA to modify, if it sees fit and acting on ICAO advice, the geometry or dimensions of the obstacle clearance surfaces themselves.
Regarding protected areas, section 14 of the Air Navigation and Transport Act 1950 empowers the Minister to make an order to declare that a particular piece of land in the vicinity of an aerodrome was to be a protected area, if the unrestricted use of that land would interfere with the navigation of aircraft.
Of the three terms, red zone, public safety zone and protected area, only the red zones are three-dimensional surfaces in the sky in so far as they are used to protect the safe navigation of aircraft. In so far as the red zones, as projected onto maps, have been used in the past for public safety purposes, they are two-dimensional surfaces on the ground. The public safety zones and protected areas are two-dimensional surfaces on the ground.
I am advised by the IAA, that the slope of the first section of the approach surface, which forms part of the obstacle limitation surfaces as defined in chapter 4 of Annex 14 to the Chicago Convention for runway 10/28 at Dublin Airport is 2%. The maximum height of an object beneath the approach surface to avoid infringing the surface is a function of the threshold elevation and the ground elevation of the site. Without knowing the ground elevation at a particular position, it is not possible to determine the maximum permissible height of a construction.
I am advised by the IAA that the respective sizes of the first section of the obstacle surface on the approach to the runways at Dublin Airport, with particular reference to inner and outer widths, slope, divergence and length, are as follows:
Runway 10/28 and 16/34 at Dublin Airport.
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Approach surface inner width
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= 300m
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Approach surface outer width
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= not specified
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Approach surface slope for first 3,000m
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= 2%
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Approach surface slope for next 3,600m
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= 2.5%
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Approach surface divergence
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= 15%
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Approach surface total length
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= 15,000m
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Runway 11/29 at Dublin Airport
(assuming a Code 3 non-instrument runway)
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Approach surface inner width
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= 150m
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Approach surface outer width
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= not specified
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Approach surface slope for first 3,000m
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= 3.33%
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Approach surface divergence
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= 10%
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Approach surface total length
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= 3,000m
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In relation to each of the 11 locations at Dublin Airport where buildings lie within the red safety areas, as I indicated in answer to question on 4 July 2001, Aer Rianta or the Fingal planning authority will be in a position to provide the Deputy with any information he may require in this regard.
I do not have the precise date requested by the Deputy, however I will provide this information to the Deputy directly as soon as possible.
