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Randy Walker, center, director of the Clark County Department of Aviation, speaks during a groundbreaking for a new $99 million Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control facility at McCarran International Airport Tuesday, May 31, 2011. The facility is expected to be operational in early 2015.
By Kyle B. Hansen (contact) 
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 | 1:54 p.m.
Sun Coverage
Las Vegas has seen a lot of changes in the last 30 years, but McCarran International Airport has been relying on the same air traffic control tower for almost that long.
In 1983, more than 12 million people visited Las Vegas, with 10 million of them arriving on 140,000 flights to McCarran. Last year, more than 37 million people visited Las Vegas arriving on more than 500,000 flights to McCarran, making it the eighth busiest airport in the nation.
But the old air traffic tower will soon be history, replaced by a new facility that, at 352 feet, will be one of the tallest in the nation.
The Federal Aviation Administration broke ground Tuesday on the $99 million tower, which will open in 2015 in the area between the under-construction Terminal 3 and the Airport Connector Tunnel.
“This tower will be a significant milestone for the airport when it opens,” said Randall Walker, the county’s director of aviation, who has overseen the airport for about 10 years.
The current tower isn’t just old, it’s also crowded, Walker said. And as air traffic increases at McCarran, the problem is only going to get worse.
The FAA said it expects McCarran to have 700,000 flights annually by 2020.
Plus, the old tower has a blind spot; controllers can’t see part of the airfield.
The new tower will be taller – 352 feet instead of the current 200 feet – and will have a clean view of the area around the airport, as well as 14-foot-tall windows without support beams getting in the way.
“This new facility is going to enhance our ability of our air traffic controller workforce to maintain the highest levels of safety on the airport surface and in the skies above it here in Las Vegas,” said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt.
The cab of the tower -- which will be 850 square feet instead of the current 525 square feet -- will have two areas, one for ground controllers to monitor planes, mechanics, cargo and other activities on the ground; and one for air controllers.
The tower will be just one part of the facility. A 52,800-square-foot building will house offices, training simulators and equipment. The old tower has a 13,740-square-foot building for that purpose.
The tower will also have the latest technology, Babbitt said.
“This tower is going to have, as all new towers will have, the ability to use not only the old, while it lasts, but transition seamlessly to the new technology as it comes available,” Babbitt said. “This tower will have the top of everything.”
The upgrade will become a piece of the national air safety system, Babbitt said.
An artist's illustration shows the new $99 million Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control facility that will be built at McCarran International Airport. The facility is expected to be operational in early 2015.
“This is an important day for Las Vegas, certainly, but it’s an important day for the whole nation,” he said. “Investments in air traffic control facilities are vital to help the nation’s air transportation system. This air transportation system keeps the nation on the move, literally on the move.”
The construction of the building itself will cost $45 million and will take until summer 2013, but the instillation of equipment will add considerable cost and take another year, officials said.
“It’s not like just putting in one or two phone lines. It’s a very complex array of equipment that goes in,” Babbitt said.
The result will be increased efficiency, allowing the airport’s runways to handle more traffic in less time. “We’ll be able to put more traffic in here, more safely,” he said.
The construction will provide about 300 jobs, a fact praised by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who attended the groundbreaking.
Reid said he remembers working at the old McCarran Field during the summer before he went to law school. He did “essential work,” like picking up trash, he said.
About half of the funding for the tower is coming from a congressional earmark for the project, Reid said.
Clark County Commissioner Mary Beth Scow, who represents the area that includes the airport, also said the sight of construction workers was good news.
“I think it means a lot to our community,” she said.
Once the new tower is being used, the old one eventually will be torn down, but the building at the base will likely stay, possibly for use by an airline for offices, Walker said.
One Senator's earmark is another Senator's pork spending. With a $1.4 trillion deficit, lets just print another batch of money for the home district. It's only $99 million.
"About half of the funding for the tower is coming from a congressional earmark for the project," Reid said.
This is what happens when we Nevada taxpayers are represented by the most powerful Senator in the U.S. Our tax money comes back to us.
If November's election had gone the other way, our senior Senator would now be Sharron Angle. Not only would we be the laughingstock of the nation, we'd be in absolute last place for return of our federal tax dollars to our state.
A sincere THANK YOU, Senator Reid.
No sleeping.
Take a close look at the design of the control tower pulpit - it appears as the large bazaar jar right out of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", where Marion Ravenwood hides to escape capture by her pursuers. Those jars were also used to transport large snakes and kidnapped slaves to be taken out into the desert for Religions and Political rituals.
This sounds like the beginning of a great new theme to add to the the Nevada Mafia legends - an Indiana Jones Style control tower right in the middle of Las Vegas! I hope they don't put any handles on the outside, it will spoil the concept.
Ground-breaking was today yet it won't open until early 2015. The article has no explanation on why this would take over 3 1/2 years to build. Gaming companies build mega-resorts in 24 months, yet a small (but somewhat tall) project like this takes the government 42 months to build?
Comment removed by moderator. Language.
Republicans and libertarians, and Republican and libertarian owned companies should not be allowed to work on this project because they are against government. "Government is not part of the solution, but part of the problem." (maybe they want to control aircraft with tin cans and string?)
Union labor is the cause of the long construction schedule.
mred, we are against government cronyism, waste, fraud and abuse. We are not against airports.
So let's spend $2.4 BILLION on another terminal that the airlines did not want (at least, to pay for it), and then justify more expenses because the existing tower won't meet the needs of the new terminal?
That's an old trick of people who request money (but not the whole amount), and then justify the need for more money because without the additional money, the original investment would be unusable.
Randy Walker had a reality check when NONE of the existing airlines wanted to move to the new Terminal 3, so now he decides to close the international Terminal 2 as his justification for Terminal 3?
Of course, Randy Walker has already closed large parts of the existing airport which exceed the number gates in the new Terminal 3. The cheap solution would have been to construct a 300 foot pedestrian tunnel from the existing Terminal 2 to the mothballed section of the A-gates at a fraction of the $2.4 billion spent on Terminal 3, but Walker isn't about saving money, but building an empire for his friends to benefit from the pork. Of course, I am assuming there was ever a real problem with the lack of international gates in the first place.
And don't think Big Labor doesn't love Randy Walker's largess of the public money... just review the Prevailing Wage requirements for these airport projects starting in 2009-2010:
http://www.laborcommissioner.com/10rates...
The tower design is nothing more than the standard design the FAA is using these days. I know that the ATC tower that opened several years ago at ATL is of a similar design.
Now Rapunzel will have to grow more hair. Oh Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair.
So Iran Contra,
the Savings and Loan debacle,
and Duke Cunningham,
Waste Fraud and abuse by Republicans?
I know, let's get Dr. Desai to run the control tower. Private Sector at its best.
Thank you Harry Reid for this great improvement to our community and these wonderful jobs, I only wish our governor would do the same instead of trying to verify teachers.
$99 million? Even with all the electronic equipment inside the tower? $99 million? This reminds me of some of the new freeway interchange projects in one of our neighboring states that are costing $99 million. And they wonder why no one has any money.