$100M control tower to bow at LaGuardia Airport

LaGuardia Airport's new $100-million control tower is set to go into operation this weekend - replacing its cramped, antiquated 46-year-old tower and giving air traffic controllers better visibility and technology the Federal Aviation Administration says will help reduce flight delays in the future.

The switch from old to new at the Queens airport will take place when the clock strikes midnight Saturday. The last plane that arrives before midnight will be handled by controllers at the old tower, and the first flight operation after midnight - on Sunday morning, 10/10/10 - will be guided by controllers in the new facility, FAA officials said Thursday.

"The old tower will be turned off and decommissioned," said Bill McLoughlin, an air traffic controller who is the local representative in LaGuardia's tower for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the controllers' union.

The move into the new tower comes none too soon, McLoughlin said. Controllers have complained for years about working conditions in the old tower, including leaky ceilings and old equipment.

"It was a dump," McLoughlin said. "It looked like something out of a cop show when they're working in a crappy precinct."

For millions of passengers, the new facility could mean less time waiting for takeoff from the nation's 18th busiest airport: The new tower has a ground radar system that provides controllers better information about aircraft on runways and taxiways, and gives controllers transponder information about a plane's destination.

That information will allow controllers to better sequence departure routes, which should reduce departure delays, McLoughlin said.

"Anything that improves ground control will improve efficiency," he said.

The "cab," or working area for controllers, is fitted with fiber-optic cables for voice and data transmission, which will help communication between pilots and controllers. It also has the ability to accommodate NextGen, a satellite-based air-traffic-control system the FAA says eventually will replace the current radar-based system.

Another advantage of the new tower is visibility of LaGuardia's 680 acres. At 233 feet, it rises about 60 feet higher than the old tower, and after Saturday, controllers for the first time will have 360-degree visibility of the airport. Currently, some parts of LaGuardia's eastern end are out of the old tower's view.

"We've built a control tower that will provide safer air-traffic-control services going well into the future," said Leo Prusak, air traffic control manager at LaGuardia tower. "When the flying public looks at this, they can feel confident that it's state-of-the-art."

A total of 38 controllers work in LaGuardia's tower. On weekdays, about 14 air traffic controllers and support personnel work there, and just as many managers and technical support personnel, FAA officials said. The new tower includes administrative offices.

The new tower, which has blue exterior paneling, has been on the drawing board for more than 15 years. The $62.8-million contract to build it was awarded in September 2006, and groundbreaking was in February 2007. The construction, mostly paid for with Department of Transportation funds, included added security features to harden the tower against terrorist attack. The total cost of $100 million reflects new equipment and design costs, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said.

"When the old tower was built, the concept of a computer monitor didn't exist," Prusak said. "Today, we have 20 to 25 monitors in a tower."

LaGuardia has 72 aircraft gates. Nearly 8,000 people work at the airport, and it handled 22.1 million passengers in 2009, according to the Port Authority, which operates the airport.