Asheville Regional Airport and the Federal Aviation\nAdministration joined together Wednesday to break ground on a new air traffic\ncontrol tower (ATCT). The new ATCT will replace the existing 62-year-old tower,\nwhich is one of the oldest in the country and is currently located within the\nairport terminal. The new ATCT is a $55 million project ($44 million\nconstruction and $11 million for equipment and technology) and will be located\non the west side of the airport, across the runway from the airport terminal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt isn’t every day that an airport gets the opportunity to\nbuild an air traffic control tower,\u201d said Lew Bleiweis, A.A.E., Greater Asheville\nRegional Airport (GARAA) President and CEO. \u201cControl towers are iconic and\nvastly important to the nation’s aviation system – key infrastructure that\nallows aviation of all kinds to operate safely and efficiently. AVL needs a new\ntower, and this historic day is one more step toward the infrastructure growth\nwe need to meet the swiftly growing air service needs in western North\nCarolina\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also significant, the AVL ATCT is one of only two such\nprojects nationwide that received grant funds approved by the Bipartisan\nInfrastructure Law. AVL received $15 million towards the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur board has spent years planning for this very day,\u201d said\nBrad Galbraith, GARAA Board Chair. \u201cInfrastructure investments are significant,\nlong-lasting, impactful and important \u2013 and we want to get it right. I am proud\nto serve on a board with strategic thinkers who have the airport\u2019s growth and\nimpact squarely in view. What is happening here today marks a tangible step\ntoward this airport\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the new tower is complete, the existing tower will be\ndemolished to make room for airport terminal expansion. The ATCT project is\npart of a years-long strategic plan involving significant infrastructure\ninvestment needed to manage the fast-paced growth occurring at AVL and in\nwestern North Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new ATCT was designed by architects at Pond and Company\nand will be constructed by J. Kokolakis Construction. The project is slated to\nbe complete in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The third-busiest airport in the state, Asheville Regional Airport is an anchor organization in western North Carolina, contributing more than $2.2 billion annually to the regional economy. AVL is served by six airline partners: Allegiant, American, Delta, JetBlue, Sun Country and United, who offer nonstop service to 25 unique airport destinations throughout the country. To learn more, visit www.flyavl.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Asheville Regional Airport and the Federal Aviation Administration joined together Wednesday to break ground on a new air traffic control tower (ATCT). The new ATCT will replace the existing 62-year-old tower, which is one of the oldest in the country and is currently located within the airport terminal. The new ATCT is a $55 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-north-carolina"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Board-Senior-Staff-edit-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24616,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24614\/revisions\/24616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}