Argentina plans to build two new runways in Antarctica and reactivate Petrel Base

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Argentine government is moving forward with a plan to permanently reactivate the Petrel Base, including the construction of two runways of 1,800 and 1,300 meters.

The project received an allocation of funds for ARS 400 (US$4) million in the extension of the 2021 budget published last November 25, as detailed to Clarín newspaper by Juan Martín Paleo, chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces.

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“It is a long-standing desire among Antarcticans to have a multimodal gateway, by air and by sea. Petrel has a natural runway and features to install a safe dock. Linking both is of great value; from there, we could provide services to third countries, ” the Buenos Aires newspaper told the Antarctic Joint Commander, General Edgar Calandin.

According to Clarin, in the 2022/2023 campaign, military engineers will arrive at Petrel to assemble the structures that will land the heavy machinery needed to build the runway and the new 150-meter pier. Two Mi-17 helicopters would be based at this base.

The Petrel Base is located on Dundee Island, on rocks 18 meters above sea level, at 63° 28′ S and 56° 17’W. It was established in 1952 and operated as a permanent base until 1978, when it became transient after suffering a fire in 1974.

In 2013 plans were activated to return it to its original role and transform it into a multimodal logistic pole for the Argentine Antarctic Program, taking advantage of its geographical benefits over Marambio Base, improving the tasks of cargo or people distribution to and from the rest of the thirteen Argentine Antarctic bases.

According to what Colonel Adolfo Humarán, head of the Petrel Base project, informed Julio Mosle of the official agency Telam, in mid-November, a crew of 18 people arrived at the base to spend the whole year there carrying out the infrastructure recovery works and thus to know the requirements for next year.

“In this first year, the objectives are to finish recovering the living quarters, repair the hangar gates that have suffered the deterioration caused by the Antarctic weather, remove as much waste as possible from the base, and demolish the foundations of disused facilities to begin to design the base as an integral multimodal cargo and passenger transshipment center where ships and planes can operate”, said Humarán, adding that this summer the standard layout of the main runway will be defined. Environmental impact studies of the new facilities will be carried out.

The program, which will last three or four years, will also include the construction of new living quarters with a capacity for sixty people and three scientific laboratories, a sewage treatment plant, a drinking water treatment plant, an emergency house, and a cargo terminal.

“Petrel occupies a strategic location in the north of the Antarctic Peninsula that would allow us to create a Ushuaia-Petrel logistic axis similar to the one that Chile operates today between the Frei Base and the city of Punta Arenas, and we believe that with the modern and sustainable development of this project we will have an attractive and clear differential with respect to the rest of the operators of Antarctic programs in the north of the Peninsula”, concluded Calandín.

With information from Clarin