Councillors endorse $400,000 in emergency funding to fix Kalgoorlie-Boulder Airport apron pavement collapse

More than $400,000 in emergency funding will be poured into the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Airport after part of the apron pavement collapsed last week, rendering it “unsafe”. The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder council approved a budget amendment to the tune of $416,748 at Monday night’s council meeting for immediate works to be completed after the pavement failure was detected last week. A report to the council said the failure was detected at 5pm on April 18 in the regular public transport apron in bay two of the airport, which councillor Wayne Johnson said was one of the main bays. The report said the affected bay was unsafe and non-operational until emergency works could be undertaken to rectify the pavement failure, which would include milling out the affected zone, stabilising the subgrade and replacing the asphalt. Further investigations would be held to determine a long-term fix for the affected area. During the council meeting, mayor Glenn Wilson said an investigation into why the failure occurred would also take place. Cr Johnson said the airport was an asset to the city and issues like this would happen “from time to time”, but he hoped more works would improve the asset. Speaking to the Kalgoorlie Miner on Tuesday, Mr Wilson said flights had not been affected. “Our airport management team are managing the situation at the moment, but it’s had very limited impact on operations,” he said. The motion to relocate $416,748 from the Airport HVAC budget of $630,000 was approved 8-0.