FAA Seeks to Replace Outdated Airport Control Towers

The Federal Aviation Administration is asking for public comments on an environmental assessment to replace 31 outdated airport traffic control towers at smaller airports across the country.

[Above photo by the FAA]

The FAA said in a statement it has set aside more than $500 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to support site evaluation, preparation, and early construction activities. 

The agency added that this effort seeks to replace towers functioning beyond their intended design life while also incorporating “key sustainability elements” within the new structures, such as all-electric building systems, materials and products free from chemicals known to pose health risks, a thermally efficient façade, high-recycled steel and metal products, renewable mass timber when usable, and ground-source heating and cooling in some environments.

The towers, designed by Practice for Architecture and Urbanism of New York, will range in height from 60 to 119 feet. 

A draft of the FAA’s Programmatic Environmental Assessment for its proposed control tower replacement program is available for public review here.

In that report, the FAA considers the conditions and potential environmental impacts of replacing numerous FAA-owned control towers with modern facilities.

It also analyzes the potential environmental impacts that may result from the construction and operation of the proposed new towers and decommissioning and removal of the existing towers, the FAA said.

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