New airport traffic control tower going up

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Story Published: Aug 18, 2008 at 5:35 PM PDT

By Azenith Smith

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NORTH BEND - It's been four years in the making and now, with financing in place, construction for the new air traffic control tower for the Southwest Oregon Regional Airport is well underway.

Work crews from Skanska Construction have finished putting up the main infrastructure and cab for the tower that stands at almost 95 feet tall.

The project cost $3.8 million dollars, with $3 million coming from the U.S. Congress and another $640,000 from the Connect Oregon Grant program.

Executive Director Gary LeTellier says, they're excited to see it all come together, as this will be the first time they'll be bringing controlled air traffic to the South Coast since World War II.

"It's important for us to get an air traffic control tower here," says LeTellier. "We are actually the last air commercial airport with scheduled service in Oregon to get a tower."

He adds, they felt it was time to build a tower with the growth of the new airport and to make the skies more safe for the increase number of private and commercial jets and small carriers in the area.

"Rather than only one airplane in our air space at a time, we can have several aircrafts in the air space with positive control with clearance," says LeTellier.

Work crews will now be finishing up the siding for the tower as well as interior work.

LeTellier says, they hope to have it completely finished by late January and have it manned by March, even as they continue to work towards securing northbound flights past October.

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