Palm Beach International Airport $19.2 million air traffic control tower stands completed but empty

By Jennifer Sorentrue

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 9:44 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011

At 231 feet tall, the new control tower stands more than double the height of the old one, providing unobstructed sightlines for the air traffic controllers who guide 300 flights a day at Palm Beach International Airport.

Completed 10 months ago, the $19.2 million tower is empty.

Planned during the county's building boom to accommodate growth and replace the stubby old tower, the new structure instead serves only as a highly visible testament to a five-year dispute over employment and safety.

The Federal Aviation Administration said this week it doesn't know when air traffic controllers might move into the new building, which was scheduled to open this year.

The tower won't be used until federal officials resolve a battle with the air traffic controllers union over the placement of a long-range radar system, known as Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, which directs airplanes below about 10,000 feet, FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.

"Nothing is being done, pending a decision on the TRACON," Bergen said.

PBIA watchdogs say the empty tower, one of the county's tallest landmarks, is example of wasteful government spending at the airport.

"Airports and the FAA slide under the radar," said Nancy Pullum, a resident of West Palm Beach's historic El Cid neighborhood, which is in the airport's flight path, and a member of PBIA's noise committee. "They don't have to go to the public to spend their money. In these economic times, in any economic time, can we tolerate poor planning and poor use of funds that might be needed somewhere else? That is the thing that is so disheartening as a citizen."
 

As part of a cost-cutting measure, the FAA has planned to combine PBIA's TRACON with one at Miami International Airport, more than 60 miles away.

Air traffic controllers and federal lawmakers have raised concerns that the cost-cutting step would cause havoc in the skies if the system went down. If a natural disaster or terrorist attack damaged the Miami radar system, controllers at the Jacksonville airport, more than 350 miles away, would be left responsible for all South Florida airports, they say.

TRACON controllers work on the lower level of PBIA's older tower, where they use radar screens to track aircraft within 50 miles of the airport. The controllers behind the glass windows at the top of the tower guide takeoffs and landings within 5 miles of the runways.

Bergen said this week that the FAA is continuing to work with the air traffic controllers union to evaluate TRACON's location. "No decision has been made," she said.

As a result of the consolidation plan, the FAA built the new tower without space for the TRACON system. To keep the system at PBIA, space would have to be added to the tower, local officials have said.

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, has opposed the consolidation plan since it was announced in 2006. He said this week that he will continue to push for federal money to build a TRACON facility at PBIA.

"In order to ensure that air traffic controllers are best equipped to continue delivering the highest levels of service to those flying within our airspace, we must build and keep a TRACON facility at PBIA," Hastings said in a prepared statement.

The push for a new tower was fueled by a runway expansion that officials said was needed to keep up with projected growth at the airport. That expansion has since been put on indefinite hold because of a drop in air traffic.

Despite that decision, officials say the new tower is needed because from the current 90-foot-tall tower, near Southern Boulevard, controllers can't see the eastern end of the existing runway.

But while the dispute drags on and the FAA pays to maintain the new structure, no equipment has been installed and no controllers will move in until the radar issue is resolved, Bergen said.

Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, declined to comment on the issue and directed questions to the FAA.

PBIA officials also declined to comment Thursday, saying the project was controlled by the FAA.

"They make comments on their own projects," PBIA spokeswoman Casandra Davis said.

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Tower built despite feud

 

Events leading up to construction of PBIA's new, and idle, traffic control tower: 

February 2006: FAA announces a consolidation plan that would eliminate 14 Terminal Radar Approach Control Centers (TRACONs) in nine states, including the one at PBIA. 

March 2006: PBIA air traffic controllers raise safety concerns over FAA plans to move Palm Beach International's TRACON to Miami. 

March 2006: Four congressmen tell FAA its plan could make South Florida skies a 'dangerous place to be.' 

Sept. 2007: The U.S. House votes to prohibit the FAA from moving the radar system. It was the third time in 16 months that representatives opposed the measure. 

Jan. 2008: The FAA holds a meeting in West Palm Beach to discuss the plan with more than two dozen concerned pilots, air traffic controllers and elected officials. 

Aug. 2008: Despite those concerns, FAA signs a contract with Orlando-based PCL Construction to build a new control tower at PBIA that does not include room for a TRACON. 

October 2010: Construction on the new $19.2 million control tower is completed. 

September 2011: New tower stands idle, with the TRACON dispute at a standstill.

Source:  http://www.palmbeachpost.com