Pennsylvania wants air traffic control facility

WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania's congressional delegation is urging the Federal Aviation Administration to consider building an air traffic control facility in eastern Pennsylvania.

As of now, the FAA is looking only at sites within New York state to house a modernized system that would consolidate the air traffic controls at New York-area airports: Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport.

One of the FAA's main criteria for the project site is that it must be within 150 miles of New York City. With areas of Pennsylvania well within that — Allentown for instance is about 90 miles —Pennsylvania lawmakers asked: Why not us?

The project is part of a program called NextGen, a plan more than a decade in the making to upgrade U.S. air traffic controls to a satellite-based system that uses GPS technology. As part of that, the FAA is working on plans to consolidate its more than 500 air traffic control facilities.

The FAA is developing a plan to replace two aging Long Island-based air traffic control sites and build a facility to control air traffic in the country's busiest airspace.

On Dec. 20, the FAA said it was looking for property for a new Integrated Air Traffic Control Facility in New York. The agency said it wants to hear from owners of 34 to 49 acres within 150 miles of New York City, within the state of New York, who are willing to sell the property to the FAA.

The site must be suitable for construction of an operational air traffic control campus, the agency said, with approximately 250,000 square feet of buildings and parking for 800 employees.

The project is especially appealing because of the jobs. Political heavyweights like Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., have been pushing to have it built in New York.

But in a letter sent to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta late last week, Sens. Bob Casey and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania as well as Lehigh Valley Reps. Charlie Dent and Matt Cartwright, and others in the delegation, said Pennsylvania deserves equal consideration.

"There are numerous properties in eastern Pennsylvania that fit the criteria outlined by the FAA other than the arbitrary limitation based on state boundaries," they wrote. "[The properties] are located in areas with considerably lower costs of living and an existing security presence which may provide an opportunity for significant cost savings."

Two sites the Pennsylvania lawmakers are pushing are the Tobyhanna Army Depot in Monroe County and the former Willow Grove Naval Air Station in Horsham Township, Montgomery County.

Dent said the next step will be to call for meetings with officials at the FAA "to have them justify why they have shut down the parameters the way they did and have them explain to us why Pennsylvania would be excluded."

An FAA spokeswoman said the agency will follow up with the Pennsylvania delegation, but that the intention of having the new facility in New York is that it will be replacing the two aged air traffic control centers located in and serving New York.

Moreover, the D.C.-based National Air Traffic Controllers Association, a labor union, supports having the facility on Long Island, where the two major New York air traffic control radar facilities are located.

While getting the facility built in Pennsylvania may be a long shot, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski and Lehigh Valley International Airport Executive Director Charles Everett Jr. both said Monday they hope LVIA could be an option, citing its proximity to New York and available land as selling points.

If the FAA indicates it's willing to look outside of New York for the facility, Everett said he would start the process of trying to get LVIA considered.

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