Chief Minister Andrew Barr has lobbied the federal government to install a paved northern road to Canberra Airport after access to parts of the facility, including ACT Emergency Services Agency headquarters, was blocked off by bushfire last week.
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Mr Barr said the bushfire, which erupted in Beard on Wednesday and forced the closure of Pialligo Avenue between the airport and Queanbeyan on Thursday, demonstrated the need for a paved road from the north to access the airport's Fairbairn precinct.
Currently the only paved road into and out of the precinct, which also houses NEC Australia, Oz Harvest Canberra and the Defence Department's Defence Science and Technology Group, is Scherger Drive, which branches off Pialligo Avenue.
Mr Barr said it was unacceptable that such an important site was reliant on a single paved-access road.
"There is no doubt that these sort of circumstances, particularly when the fire was in the immediate vicinity of this facility, and indeed critical infrastructure like the airport, highlights the need for that sort of redundancy and alternative ways to access these sorts of facilities," Mr Barr said at a media conference at ESA headquarters on Friday.
"There is a road to get here (ESA headquarters). It's not paved though, and the main access road to the ESA was, of course, blocked off [on Thursday] because of the fires."
Mr Barr said the issue would be considered as part of the review being launched by the ACT government into this summer's bushfires, and was also being taken up with the Commonwealth.
"I have already raised [the issue] with the Prime Minister's office this morning ... and we intend to pursue [it] with the federal government in coming weeks," the Chief Minister said.
Building a second access road will require federal government approval because it would be on Commonwealth land.
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Canberra Airport Group managing director Stephen Byron said the airport had been in discussions with the Commonwealth government on a second access road for "a number of years" and the issue needed to be "sorted out".
"One of the great learnings [from the bushfire] was there does need to be a northern access road, that is a proper road, to the Fairbairn side of the airport and to facilitate access for everyone there, including the ESA," Mr Byron said.
"To have one of the precincts of the airport only served in one direction which gets cut off by fire is not acceptable and there needs to be a bitumen road there."
Mr Byron said the airport was willing to build the road, but needed the federal government's permission.
Meanwhile, the ESA has advised that the Beard fire, which has so far burnt through 424 hectares, is under control.
Firefighters from the ACT Rural Fire Service and ACT Parks and Conservation Service were patrolling the fire ground on Sunday to identify and extinguish any flare-ups and hot spots.