Airport tower contract OK’d

Federal aviation officials have awarded a $13.9 million contract to two companies to begin design and construction of a new, taller air traffic control tower at Spokane International Airport.

The new tower will be more than three times the size of the current 75-foot air control tower.

Work will begin on the new tower sometime in early 2005. Parsons, a Pasadena, Calif., company that’s worked on numerous airport projects, will design the 243-foot tower. Construction of the tower and of an adjoining 15,000-square-foot equipment and traffic-monitoring building is scheduled to be completed in 2006 by Kiewit Construction, of Renton, Wash.

The FAA won’t switch operations to the new tower until sometime in 2007. By the time all electronic equipment is installed and tested, the total project should come to about $22 million, said Allen Kenitzer, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman based in Renton.

Federal dollars will pay for the project, he said.

FAA officials said the new tower, to be built south and east of the current tower, will offer improved lines-of-sight for both Spokane International Airport and Fairchild Air Force Base.

Airport spokesman Todd Woodard said the new tower would be a significant improvement “both from the safety and efficiency viewpoint.”

FAA tower controllers now spend a large part of the morning looking east, into the sun, Woodard said. “The new tower will have the sun to their backs during the busiest part of the day, the morning,” he said.

The airport is also planning to add a third runway at some point, and to expand air cargo traffic in the new Taxiway G area. A much taller tower is critical for both of those projects to proceed, said Woodard.