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Chus Heredia / Ignacio Lillo
Malaga
Wednesday, 18 September 2024
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The iconic Canal Sur broadcast tower, which dominates the views along a large stretch of the old N-340 dual carriageway, will lose more than half of its height so as not to interfere with future air traffic operations at Malaga Airport. The work is a lot more important than it seems because the tower's current height of more than 42 metres is an issue for the airport operator Aena, which has just contracted the job to dismantle it after reaching an agreement with the tower's owners, RTVA, the media group that includes Canal Sur. In principle the partial demolition will be coordinated with the broadcaster so as not to affect its output at any time. This puts an end to an issue that has been pending for almost 15 years.
The contract is for almost 908,000 euros, including taxes, and has a completion period of eight months, which means that it should be finished by the end of spring next year. The company awarded the contract is Mantenia Servicio, after it was put out to tender in April this year.
This is the most significant of a series of actions that must be carried out to resolve part of the airport's non-compliance with regulations relating to the second runway 12/30. Canal Sur's tower currently impedes take-offs and landings in certain directions, thus limiting options for air traffic control management. The regulations pertaining to the non-compliance are a Royal Decree and those of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
The envisaged changes to be completed are: the dismantling of the existing antennas and paraphernalia on the outside of the Canal Sur tower; the dismantling of some advertising signs installed on the roof of the adjacent Canal Sur building; the demolition of part of the Canal Sur tower itself to reduce the height; the construction of a new platform and access stairs to it on the television tower; alterations made to the lightning protection system to sync with the proportions of the altered buildings, and the installation of a single sign for the brand.
"The aim of this project is to remove two of the obstacles that prevent the commissioning of the currently non-operational head-on runway approach 30 at Malaga Airport. The elements on which action is to be taken are outside the airport's property, belonging to the property of the regional radio and television company Canal Sur," states the technical specifications in the project documents as checked by SUR.
The basic technical project was completed last year by specialist company Viarium Ingeniería, but there are earlier studies, for example one drafted in 2015 by Consultop. It shows that the height of the tower is exactly 42.37 metres high and therefore interferes with various airport obstacle protection measures. When adding the height of the land on which the tower stands, the real height is 47.45 metres. The plan is to bring it down to 22 metres.
The second part of the Costa del Sol airport with its additional runway came into service in June 2012, but only partially, as it could not be used on the seaward side because of this obstacle. The main runway (13/31) operates in both directions depending on the wind direction at any given time. It should be remembered that aircraft normally land and take off against the wind. With easterly winds runway 13/31 is used to land from the land direction, and with landward winds they land from the seaward end. In turn, for take-off, with the 'levante' wind (westerly), the take-off is towards the sea, and with 'terral' (blowing from the mountains towards the coast), take-off is done facing the land. This is how it was explained by a spokesperson for the experts at Malaga Airport's air traffic control tower.
On the other hand, the new twin runway (12/30) was born "lame", as it has never been possible to fly over the top end of the runway where Canal Sur's antennas still stand. Thus, runway 12 cannot be used for take-offs, only for landings and runway 30 the reverse, so together they only provide a half-service.
When the main runway is obstructed by an aircraft or a breakdown, controllers are left with only half a runway. After these changes and the relevant tests, both runways will be fully operational.
As far as day-to-day airport operations are concerned, this development will not actually mean the arrival of more flights and passengers to Malaga. In fact, from now on, this head-on approach will not be flown over more frequently, but only as a 'just-in-case' when the need arises - it's a necessary contingency. In principle, the air traffic control tower will continue to operate as before, giving priority to the first runway, but on specific occasions, when the main runway cannot be used, the second runway can be activated to operate at full capacity.
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