Take-offs keep Brisbane grounded

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This was published 12 years ago

Take-offs keep Brisbane grounded

By Tony Moore

Brisbane looks likely to have reached its pinnacle after yesterday's announcement of a 90-storey building on Margaret Street that, on completion, will probably remain the city's tallest.

Unless guidelines by Airservices Australia and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority change, the 274-metre 111+222 development is the highest a building can be built in Brisbane's central business district.

Plans for reveal the "Bon Bon" shape of the tower.

Plans for reveal the "Bon Bon" shape of the tower.

The restriction is not due to fears that an aircraft would physically strike the building, but rather that tall buildings could cause radar signal reflection, an Airservices spokesman said last night.

The spokesman for Airservices Australia, the agency responsible for air traffic control, said radar signal reflections and interference with summer take-off and landing flight paths into the wind were the two main issues confronting development in the CBD.

"Anything above that height interferes with the radar signals and also could conceivably cause problems for flight paths into Brisbane Airport," he said.

"Essentially it is a safety issue and CASA being the safety authority has very strict height limits that have to be met around flight path areas."

The Airservices spokesman said there was very restricted flexibility around Brisbane's CBD and said there was very limited ability to alter flight paths.

He said he doubted developers Billbergia, which yesterday won approval to build two towers on the Vision site, would be successful in its bid to increase the building's height to 297 metres.

"There would have to be an environmental impact assessment prepared and a report on the impact on the airport's operations," the spokesman said.

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"At this point I would say 'no'. I think the initial Vision project was rejected because it was too high and 274 metres is the limit and it is really not negotiable."

The Airservices spokesman taller buildings could conceivably be built outside Brisbane's CBD.

"Certainly, [the Billbergia development] will be the highest in the CBD area, but it could be possible for instance for one to be built in area that is not subject to any flight path restrictions or radar restrictions," he said.

"Say Cleveland, or something like that."

Any application in Brisbane that could conceivably cause problems for Brisbane Airport is referred to Brisbane Airport Corporation.

BAC asks both Airservices Australia and CASA for a ruling.

brisbanetimes.com.au understands the BAC lodged a formal objection to the original 297 metre height proposed by the Vision Tower project on the same site.

BAC objected to most CBD buildings proposed that were over 250 metres, according to planning consultants John Morwood and Jenevere Lake.

In their 2008 paper Sharing the Space - Aircrafts and Tall Buildings in Brisbane's CBD, they pointed out BAC's concerns.

"The Brisbane Airport Corporation and other airspace agencies responsible for the safe and efficient operation of airports and airspace are reluctant to support tall buildings that exceed the current height of established development in Brisbane's City Centre – at approximately 250 metres," they wrote.

However they point out there "is no document publicly available that explains why development beyond 250 metres AHD (Australian Height Datum) poses a problem to aircraft operations."

The Airservices spokesman said there was no "height limit", but that individual applications are assessed on their merit.

"Each individual one is looked at as an individual case on its location and where the flight path is," he said.

A spokesman for CASA said they worked out an "obstacle limitation surface" for each airport for every structure of a height of 120 metres or more.

An assessment is required of any structure over that height to work out the ultimate height.

"That is a point in the air where you don't want any obstacles going above that because you are going into the air space that the aircraft are going to be using," he said.

"I don't know exactly what it would be above Brisbane, but certainly it would cover the Brisbane CBD, that's for sure."

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said the impact of flight paths affecting the height of buildings in Brisbane's CBD should be debated.

“I think that is a debate that we need to have into the future because it would seem to be a little silly to me to have a height restriction based on flight paths,” he said.

Brisbane's top five tallest buildings - roof height

  1. 111+222, Margaret Street: 274 metres, 90 storeys (approved)
  2. Infinity Tower, Herschel Street: 247 metres, 76 storeys (under construction)
  3. Soleil, Adelaide Street: 243 metres; 74 storeys (under construction)
  4. Aurora, Queen Street: 207 metres; 69 storeys (completed)
  5. Riparian Plaza, Eagle Street: 200.3 metres (250 metres with communications spire); 55 storeys (completed)
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