LaGuardia unveils new $100M air traffic tower

Inside the new $100-million air traffic control tower at LaGuardia Airport, Ed Al-Chalabi kept watch Friday over the planes and helicopters crossing through the busiest airspace in the world.

There was no need to keep a wastebasket handy in case the roof started to leak, just as it was prone to do in the old, cramped airport control tower.

"It's very nice," said Al-Chalabi, 33, an air traffic controller from Dix Hills. "I can't complain."

LaGuardia's new nerve center, which was officially dedicated Friday, has updated equipment and better views to make orchestrating departures and landings more efficiently.

The airport handled 400,000 flight operations last year.

Al-Chalabi's flat-screen monitor had crystal-clear amber graphics, and the tower's large windowed section, called the cab, gives him a 360-degree view of the airport. "In the old tower, you couldn't really see everything," he said.

Federal Aviation Administration chief Randy Babbitt traveled from Washington to cut a ribbon at the dedication ceremony at the Marine Terminal.

"Today marks a culmination of years of hard work by many people," Babbitt said of the new tower, which began operating in October.

After the ceremony, invited guests were guided on a tour of the tower, which juts 233 feet high and features an 850-square-foot cab. Those at the ceremony included Rep. Carolyn Maloney, (D-Manhattan), Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, and Christopher Ward, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Inside the cab is a new ground radar system that FAA officials say will improve runway and taxiway movements.

Called the Airport Surface Detection System, the radar allows controllers to track aircraft movements on the ground and combines them with identifying information from the planes. The bundled display appears on a color screen that also shows the airports runways.

"In the old tower, they were just a bunch of green dots," Al-Chalabi said. The new system will "clear up a lot of congestion."

The new tower replaces a 46-year-old structure that will be partly dismantled, and plans are being made to turn what's left into a restaurant, an FAA official said.