Demolition of SSKIA terminal cost P500,000

MELINDA ALVAREZ
Correspondent | Friday July 9, 2010 00:00

A new state-of-the-art terminal building was unveiled late last month following almost a year of frenetic construction by the Chinese contractor and various sub-contractors.

The new terminal is part of a P433-million project that includes construction of extensions to the main car park, further work on the new separate terminal that will include car parks and aircraft parking aprons, extension of the runway by one kilometre, a new parallel asphalt taxiway running for four kilometres and 33 new hangar plots.

Answering a question in Parliament on Tuesday, Ramsden said the designers preferred demolition because it would be quicker than refurbishment, which was an important consideration for the 'fast-track project'. He stressed that demolition was also preferable from an engineering perspective: 'From an engineering point of view, it would have been impractical to retain the existing building primarily because the new building was to be constructed based on 18-metre column spans, whilst most of the existing columns were at six-metre spans.

'From a construction point of view, height requirements for the new building in relation to the existing structure made it difficult to combine the two buildings.'

Ramsden said the architectural features of the existing building would also require complete re-configuration for consistency with those on the new building. 'This is because of the difference between the old and new styles of architecture and the need to integrate new building services into the old building, if re-configured,' he said.

The Environmental Management Plan (EMP) did not identify sentimental or archival value as impact criteria, nor was this required in terms of approvals given. 'Therefore, no evaluation was done on this basis,' the minister said.

'The old terminal building, constructed in 1983, was originally designed with a view for future expansion sideways as well as upwards. However, this design concept could not be achieved.'

The new terminal building came into use on May 20, marking a major milestone in Botswana's aviation history.