A New View at Richmond International Airport

A New View at the Airport
172-foot structure to replace 1950s tower

Richmond Times Dispatch, VA
Monday, December 8, 2003

  
They had seen some splendid sights before, but the aviation veterans had never 
witnessed anything quite as breathtaking as the panoramic view from Richmond's 
new air-traffic control tower.

As Virginia Air National Guard F-16 fighter jets raced down the runway at 
Richmond International Airport, Johnny Mazza sounded slightly awestruck at the 
bird's-eye view.

"In New York and Washington," he said, "people pay to go up buildings and look 
out observation decks."

During a recent tour of the tower, this stunning view came for free - although 
it took millions of dollars and years of effort to build the 11-story 
structure. It has been under construction on the north edge of the airport 
since May 2002.

New control tower  
Cost: $11.2 million

General contractor: Skanska Inc. of Richmond

Tower cab floor: 150 feet high

Top of control tower: 172 feet

Distinctive features: Concrete exterior modules are "manilla tan;" exterior of 
tower cab is "slate blue."

Makers of materials: Concrete modules made by Tindall Corp. of Petersburg; 
foundation made by James River Concrete of Richmond

Construction schedule: started May 2002, completed this month.

Opening: June 13, 2004
 
Mazza, chairman of the Capital Region Airport Commission, recently gathered 
with other local and state officials to see the "manilla tan" and blue 
structure.

Last week, the airport commission turned ownership of the $11.2 million tower 
over to the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA, which handles air-traffic 
control, plans to spend the next six months installing and testing equipment 
before it starts using the facility.

The FAA plans to open the tower on June 13 with "a big party," said agency 
spokesman Jim Peters.

The event will celebrate the completion of a project that will have taken about 
two years to build and equip, and much longer to plan, design and fund. For 
airport CEO and President Jon Mathiasen, completion of the 172-foot-tall tower 
marks a key moment in the ongoing $75 million expansion of the airport terminal.

Without a new tower, he said, the old one - still operating atop the terminal - 
couldn't be closed.

And if the more than half-century-old tower isn't removed, then the airport 
can't build a two-level terminal with a dual-level roadway.

"This was the keystone project to make the terminal happen," Mathiasen said. 
"Being able to decommission [the old tower] was paramount" to push on with the 
terminal expansion.

"We could do everything around it," Mathiasen said of the squat, old tower, 
which is only 49 feet above ground level, according to the FAA. "But if we 
don't get this new tower up and operating, everything else comes to a stop."

The new tower was built 2,300 feet north of the old one on a 5-acre site that 
the airport is leasing to the FAA for the nominal sum of $1 per year.

It's a typical arrangement, said the FAA's Peters, with the government taking 
ownership of an air-traffic control tower on a piece of airport property.

Besides the 11-story structure, the tower complex includes a 10,000-square-foot 
administrative building and a 2,500-squarefoot support building with a backup 
generator.

But it's the top of the tower, with a floor 150 feet above ground level, that 
drew the most attention on a recent clear day.

Looking through the wide, blue-tinted windows, visitors took in a 360-degree 
view estimated to stretch more than 10 miles.

"There's Bon Air!" Mazza said, looking to the west. "And there's the Channel 6 
tower," he said, pointing northwest.

To the south, he pointed to the Dominion Virginia Power plant at Dutch Gap in 
Chesterfield County and to the Varina-Enon Bridge on Interstate 295.

Richmond's beige and brown skyline appeared in the middle distance and, closer 
by, there was the sprawling Nabisco plant in Varina.

Just below, airport garages and streets resembled a model city as cars and 
trucks zipped by like so many toys.

Passenger jets glimmered near the airport concourses. But unlike the view from 
the vertically challenged terminal tower, each plane was clearly within view of 
the new control tower.

Indeed, the current control tower is so low it requires television cameras to 
keep track of jets taxiing into position on the runways.

This visibility problem has increased over the years as Richmond International 
has grown.

According to Mathiasen, the FAA air-traffic controllers "have difficulty seeing 
the taxiway system out there, with planes coming around the buildings."

Charles Macfarlane, director of Virginia's Department of Aviation, said he has 
encountered this line-of-sight problem flying helicopters into and out of 
HeloAir's operation at the north end of the field.

"When I land over there, I call to the tower and tell them I am 'down and 
secure' because they cannot see helicopters hover-taxiing in," he said.

Macfarlane, whose agency helped fund and design part of the project, called the 
new tower "symbolic of the growth of the airport, and certainly brings this 
airport into the 21st century. I think it bodes well for the long-term growth 
of the area."

The new tower has a practical advantage for the state aviation chief: Located 
directly across from Virginia's aviation offices and hangar on Gulfstream Road, 
it's a handy landmark for giving directions.

"I say, 'You can't miss it. It's 150 feet in the air,'" Macfarlane said.

Mazza observed, "I think it's going to lead to better handling of aircraft - 
safer, that's the big thing."

And, he noted, "It looks like a real tower."

. . .

The FAA has wanted a new tower for years. In 1998, an agency official predicted 
construction of a new facility "within the next two or three years," The 
Times-Dispatch reported. 
The official predicted an upsurge of operations handled by controllers - that 
is, takeoffs and landings of commercial, military and general-aviation 
aircraft. The prediction held true through 2000 - when the tower handled nearly 
150,000 operations. But the 2001 terrorist attacks led to a nationwide decline 
in aircraft activity.

By the end of last year, Richmond's operations had dropped to 133,269, 
according to FAA figures.

But even without an upsurge in air traffic, the FAA - like Richmond 
International and state officials - still wanted a new tower.

The facility's role will be different than initially envisioned in the 1990s 
though. The government has consolidated air-traffic control operations for 
Maryland, Washington and Virginia.

Late last year, the FAA opened a facility in Warrenton - the Potomac 
Consolidated TRACON - that centralized five existing facilities, including some 
functions of Richmond International.

The TRACON - an acronym for "Terminal Radar Approach Control" - let the agency 
"redesign the airspace in this area for more efficient, direct flight 
routings," the FAA said in a press release.

Twenty-five Richmond-based air traffic controllers - plus four supervisors or 
managers - were transferred to the new facility, FAA spokesman Peters said. The 
Potomac TRACON handles aircraft flying between 3,000 feet and 10,000 feet, 
while aircraft flying at higher altitudes are handled by other FAA centers 
around the country.

This leaves Richmond's control tower to track aircraft flying at 3,000 feet or 
below, or landing at the airport, Peters said. The area of responsibility 
stretches in a 5-mile radius around the airport, he said.

The new tower will have 20 full-time employees, and one part-timer. Most of the 
employees are air-traffic controllers. During the next six months, the FAA will 
bring in technical teams to equip the tower with a variety of state-of-the art 
technologies.

These include digital voice recorders, full-color screens that pinpoint the 
precise locations of airplanes and an "information display system," a kind of 
digital encyclopedia about aircraft and airports.

Purchase and installation of new equipment are expected to cost $2 million.

Originally, the tower was slated for completion by early this year, with the 
FAA moving in last June.

According to Mathiasen, a large part of the delay occurred after the airport 
and FAA learned that underground telephone lines needed replacing. Some of the 
lines probably dated back to the 1960s, he said.

"They were very concerned about the reliability" of the lines, Mathiasen said, 
"because the signal was low in some places."

These "data pipes," as they're known, provide critical data from the airport 
runway about aircraft activity, temperatures, visibility and weather.

This work helps explain why the project - originally slated to cost $10.7 
million - came in at $11.2 million.

Federal appropriations paid for most of the work, with the state kicking in $2 
million and Richmond International ponying up $200,000.

But according to Mathiasen and other aviation officials, the terminal project 
was expedited by the airport's willingness to take the lead in building the 
tower, then turning it over to the FAA.

Mathiasen spent many mornings either driving or riding the train to Washington 
to secure federal grants for the project.

"We definitely took time off the project" by building it and turning it over to 
the FAA, he said.

Mathiasen credited predecessors at Richmond International for "keeping this 
project going fast track." He singled out the late John Lillard, the airport's 
former manager of special projects, for spearheading the effort.

Lillard died in 2001 and was later named the 2001 Virginia Aviation Person of 
the Year.

"I certainly didn't do this alone," Mathiasen said, gazing over the railing of 
the tower's observation deck. "There was a tremendous amount of work done 
before I got here."

. . .

With the new tower poised for action, what will become of the old one?

Neither Mathiasen nor the FAA could set an exact date for the old tower's 
construction. Newspaper reports say it was in place by April 1, 1950, when the 
airport, then known as Byrd Field, began operating.

Officials at the nearby Virginia Aviation Museum have said they would like to 
use the old tower to create a living history museum, complete with radios and 
other gear to give visitors a taste of the air controller's life.

Mathiasen said it looks like the old tower cab could be lifted off with a 
crane. But someone would have to take ownership of the historic structure, he 
said.

The airport chief has said he doesn't want the old cab to become an eyesore 
until the museum receives funding to do something with it.

Nancy Tait, spokeswoman for the museum, said it remains interested in acquiring 
the control-tower cab. But no final plan is in place, she said.

The problem of housing a piece of airport history was a reminder of how quickly 
things can become obsolete.

Gazing down at the vintage tower, Mazza mused, "Well, that was a real tower in 
its day."

 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dc/dcboard.php

*****************************************