Antarctica's Scott Base rebuild to cost $250 million

Friday, 28 June 2019

The proposed rebuild of Scott Base Redevelopment in Antarctica official announcement.

Antarctica New Zealand must raise $50 million in charitable donations as part of its $250m Scott Base rebuild.

The state agency plans a 10,000 square-metre new base with three interconnected buildings on the same site as the existing base.

It will include 100 beds, science labs, meeting spaces, a cafeteria and pub, and a hangar for two helicopters.

Scott Base redevelopment senior manager Simon Shelton said the current base was reaching the end of its functional life.

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The preferred design for the new-look Scott Base in Antarctica.

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Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said taxpayers would contribute $200m.

Antarctica NZ will spend two years creating a detailed design and hopes to start the complicated rebuild in 2020-21, which will likely take eight years.

The agency said it would continue research from the base through the rebuild.

Three connected buildings on the left, the hangar on the right and Ed Hillary's heritage hut from 1957, in yellow. The road leads to McMurdo Station, about 4km away.

Chairman Sir Brian Roche said the organisation had not previously raised money as a charity, but that was 'the task in front of us'.

Companies would be approached first.

Scott Base was the only vehicle available to companies to get behind science on the ice.

The proposed design was a modest version of the most expensive option, which would have cost about $290m, Shelton said.

A fly-through of the proposed redevelopment of Scott Base in Antarctica.

In 2018, the rebuild was expected to cost between $120m and $150m.

Peters defended the increase, saying 'we're more realistic than the previous Government'.

The final design and budget would have to be approved by Cabinet.

The rebuild would benefit the Canterbury economy by $233m and the New Zealand economy by $431m, he claimed.

Antarctica NZ got $18.5m in this year's Budget to complete the final design.

Shelton said Scott Base had about 90 beds and the 12 separate buildings, most dating from the 1970s and '80s, were increasingly hard and expensive to maintain.

The front entrance, with a bridge to the building behind.

Fire safety was judged inadequate and while the system had been patched, a long-term solution was needed.

Life support systems, such as fresh water, were 'starting to fail'.

Base redevelopment senior manager Simon Shelton shows Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters a scale model. The colour of the proposed base has not been selected.

The new base will be on the same site on Ross Island as the existing base.

In the proposal, the building highest up the hill will be for accommodation, dining and welfare. The middle building will house science labs and management offices, while that closest to the Ross Sea will be for engineering and storage.

The helicopter hangar will stand alone.

The restored heritage hut built by Sir Edmund Hillary and colleagues in 1957 will remain where it is. Some other smaller structures may be kept for heritage purposes.

All materials from the demolished buildings will be returned to New Zealand for disposal.

United Kingdom-based architect Hugh Broughton, who created the design with New Zealand architects Jasmax, said the project demonstrated a 'commitment to scientific discovery of global significance'.

'It will be a beacon of environmental stewardship and will rest modestly in the beautiful Antarctic landscape.'