The Argentine government is moving forward with a plan to reactivate permanently the Petrel Base, including the construction of two runways of 1,800 and 1,300 meters.
The project received a funding of ARS 400 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.
«It is an old wish of the Antarctic people to have a multi-modal gateway, by air and by sea. Petrel has a natural runway and attributes to install a safe dock. Connecting both is of great value since from there we could provide services to third countries», the Antarctic Joint Commander, General Edgar Calandin, told the Buenos Aires newspaper.
According to Clarin, in the 2022/2023 campaign, military engineers will arrive at Petrel to assemble the structures that will allow the landing of the heavy machinery needed to build the runway and the new 150-meter pier. Two Mi-17 helicopters would be based at this base.
Petrel Base is located on Dundee Island, standing on rocks at 18 meters above the 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 transitory after suffering a fire in 1974. In 2013 plans were activated to return it to its original role and transform it into a multi-modal logistic pole for the Argentine Antarctic Program, leveraging its geographical advantages over the Marambio Base, improving the distribution of cargo or people to and from the rest of the thirteen Argentine Antarctic bases.
Colonel Adolfo Humarán, Petrel Base Project Manager, told Julio Mosle from the official news agency Telam, that in mid-November a team of 18 people arrived at the base to spend the whole year there to perform the infrastructure recovery works and to determine next year’s requirements.
«In this first year the objectives are to finish recovering the habitable house, repair the hangar gates that suffered the deterioration caused by the Antarctic weather, remove the largest amount of waste that remains at the base, and to demolish the foundations of disused facilities to begin to layout the base as an integral multi-modal cargo and passenger transfer center where ships and planes can operate», said Humarán, also detailing that this summer the definitive design of the main runway will be defined and the 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 a new residential house with a capacity for sixty people and three scientific laboratories, a liquid sewage 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 enable us to create a Ushuaia-Petrel logistic hub similar to the one currently operated by Chile between the Frei Base and the city of Punta Arenas, and we firmly believe that with the modern and sustainable development of this project we will have an attractive and clear differential concerning other operators of Antarctic programs in the north of the Peninsula», concluded Calandín.
