Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Palm Springs airport's new control tower drywall ruined by rain

Construction halted so abruptly on the new air traffic control tower at Palm Springs International Airport that the workers didn't have time to protect the drywall from the elements.
/ Courtesy of Swinerton Builders

Last week, the warning was out there: Palm Springs' unfinished air traffic control tower could be damaged if it rained before construction resumed.

Rain is a rarity in the desert. But almost on cue, the Palm Springs airport saw 0.34 inches of rainfall Sunday, quenching the dry desert floor and damaging exposed drywall in the unfinished tower.

Spoiled drywall is the local impact of Congress' standoff over Federal Aviation Administration funding, which brought work on the $24.5 million tower to a surprise halt last week.

“We did have some water damage. It looks like it must have rained pretty good,” Bob Graf, the Swinerton Builders superintendent who is overseeing the project, said Monday.

The impasse in Washington halted construction so abruptly that workers in Palm Springs didn't have a chance to cover the exposed sections, Graf added.

He did not have a dollar estimate on the damage but did not consider replacing the drywall to be a major setback. About $2,000 in rental fees for equipment, trailers and fencing is wasted each day the site sits idle.

The FAA is losing an estimated $30 million each day in airline taxes that aren't being collected because the legislation is stuck.

The work stoppage also affects about 60 builders at the Palm Springs tower, including at least four iron workers who won't be returning to the job, Graf said Monday.

The iron workers have union agreements that return them to a work pool for new jobs if they're laid off more than a few days, Graf said.

Other trades have similar provisions that will kick in if the impasse continues, Graf added. He said he won't know how many workers were lost to other jobs until the standoff ends.

“The longer it goes, the more likelihood they will have find other jobs,” Graf said.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the committee that oversees the FAA, hoped to bring a bill to end the shutdown to the Senate floor as early as Monday night

Meanwhile, in his second phone conference with reporters on the FAA standoff in a week, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Monday urged Congress to end the impasse before taking its summer break from Aug. 8 to Sept. 5.

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