PEORIA, Ill. – Local officials and lawmakers are hopeful the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act can mean a rebuild of the air traffic control tower at Peoria International Airport.
Part of the money in the bill is a grant program that could lead to the estimated $20 million needed to replace the tower.
“That air traffic control tower that we have right here at the airport, is actually one year older than the Federal Aviation Administration itself,” said Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-East Moline). “That puts it in perspective — 64 years old.”
Bustos toured the tower Monday with airport officials, and they say the space is cramped, has asbestos, can’t have equipment easily upgraded, has rooms being used for things beyond what they were planned for, and is one of two in Illinois that isn’t even owned by the FAA.
That, officials say, has made it next to impossible to get upgrades before now.
“We just did a sustainment study about a year ago,” said Gene Olson, Peoria International Airport Director. “We looked at what it would take to bring this building up to code. The answer is almost $13 million. And you still have a 64-year-old building.”
Before now, under various federal rules, money hasn’t been available to upgrade the privately-owned tower. The grant program has rules written into it, Bustos said, that would change that.
“I remember visiting the control tower as a high school student with a friend of mine whose father worked and retired as an FAA air traffic controller,” said Tim Ekvall, a Peoria-area native who is president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association local in Peoria. “When I came to town to visit when I was able to transfer and move home, I walked up and thought, ‘Wow. This looks the exact same as it did in 1998.’”
Ekvall says quarters are cramped, cables can’t be accessed by technicians, and there’s the issue of asbestos. He says what’s more, some of his staff aren’t even working in the tower.
