Construction is underway on a new air traffic control tower at North Carolina’s Asheville Regional Airport (AVL). The airport’s existing tower was built in 1961 and is currently one of the oldest in the national airspace system. The new tower will be 127 feet tall with a 440-square-foot cab and a 13,300-square-foot base building.
“It isn’t every day that an airport gets the opportunity to build an air traffic control tower,” said Greater Asheville Regional Airport (GARAA) President and CEO Lew Bleiweis. “Control towers are iconic and vastly important to the nation’s aviation system—key infrastructure that allows aviation of all kinds to operate safely and efficiently. AVL needs a new tower, and this historic day is one more step toward the infrastructure growth we need to meet the swiftly growing air service needs in western North Carolina.”
AVL is one of two airports—alongside Illinois’ General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport (PIA)—to be awarded $15 million in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grant funding by the FAA for the construction of new towers. According to GARAA, the project comes with a $55 million price tag, including $44 million for construction and $11 million for equipment and technology. Construction on the AVL tower is scheduled to be completed in 2025, after which the old tower will be demolished.
