Built in 1959, the air traffic control tower at the Peoria International Airport is in grim shape.
But thanks to the recently enacted $1.2 trillion dollar federal infrastructure bill, the airport is eligible for a grant to tear down and rebuild the tower.
Because the tower is locally owned, Director of Airports Gene Olson has previously been unable to tap into federal funds to pay for repairs.
Without the federal infrastructure bill, Olson said it would cost about $13 million of local tax money to bring the existing tower "up to code" — and then Peorians would still be left with a 64-year-old building.
The estimated cost to replace the tower is $20 million.
U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Quad Cities, said she ensured the newly enacted federal bill included language to allow for locally-owned control towers to apply for funding.
She toured the Peoria tower on Monday and told reporters she had to "turn sideways" to enter the restroom and observed caulk in place to direct dripping water away from electrical boxes.
After Bustos' tour, WCBU's Hannah Alani interviewed air traffic controller Tim Ekvall about what a new tower would mean to him. Ekvall is the president of the Peoria chapter of the American Air Traffic Controllers Association union.
This is a transcript of an interview that aired during "All Things Peoria." It has been edited for length and clarity.
Tim Ekvall: I’ve been at Peoria for four years now, been an air traffic controller for 15. And this is by far, of my three facilities, the one that desperately needs the help and improvement. From the first time I walked in the door, I remember the buzz of, you know, “Is a new tower coming? Can we do this?” And there just seemed to be no hope. But from the moment that we heard about this bill, and the language, it getting passed, and the support from our airports and Rep. Bustos, and other senators … I'm ecstatic. I really did not think by the time nine years rolls around, when I'm eligible to retire, that I would see a new tower here at all. But I believe this, this is our absolute best chance.
Hannah Alani: I expect very few of our listeners know exactly what an air traffic controller does. What is your job? What exactly do you do?
Tim Ekvall: So, let's start from the ground up. Let's say that you get on your flight, board your flight to Florida, and you're ready to go. From the moment you start your taxi, an air traffic controller is there guiding the way for you. So, we have a ground control position in our tower, which controls aircraft moving to and from runways, as well as vehicles, mowers, snowblowers, loaders, all of the airport personnel and equipment that maintain the runways during adverse weather conditions. So, we taxi you out. We issue your route clearance and advise you on weather locally here, as well as any impacts on the way. We take you to our next position, which is called local control. Local control owns the runways. No one can land or take off or have access near the runway without the permission of the local controller. Once you would take off here, let's say on Allegiant for example, you take off from the local controller, they call you for takeoff. We hand you off to our departure controller who starts you on their way, separating you out of airspace up to 10,000 feet. Then you go on to an air traffic control in route center, and they'll climb you all the way up to where you see the, all of them flying through the sky with the contrails behind them. Bring ya back down, and go through the ranks again, from in route center to approach control, to tower to ground control, to your gate. We're there for you every step of the way.
We also at Peoria provide radar service to Peoria and Bloomington, and surrounding airports without control towers, such as Canton, Pekin, and Mount Hawley. So any aircraft that takes off … even if they're just going to do a little bit of sightseeing, or some pilot training … as well as our military, like the C-130s, will talk to our radar controllers who guide them in and out and sequence them. Mixing Cessnas in with big jets and C-130s. And we have other military operations that come in here. KC-135 big jet tankers. And even an occasional fighter jet will come in.
Hannah Alani: Tell me more about the situations in which you have to send a crew out in a minivan to traverse the airways, the taxiways, because you just can't do what you need to do from this current tower.
Tim Ekvall: When our fire alarm system goes off and we have to evacuate the building. Number one, the approach control airspace that we work, we provide radar service and guide airplanes in and out of here as well as Bloomington airport, ground to 10,000 feet. We're not able to do that remotely only, inside the building. So that gets delegated to a facility above us, Chicago air traffic control center. We would then take a portable radio with us to be able to communicate with aircraft that are close by, in-bound to land, or ready to take off. And at that point, we would have to take a vehicle onto a vantage point at the airport just to have the best view that we could, while a situation (is) resolved in the tower, making sure it's safe to resume operations.
Hannah Alani: Tell me a little bit about what it's like to go to work every day. Congresswoman Bustos mentioned that she had to turn sideways to get into the bathroom. There's a room that's kind of doubling as a training center and all these other things. What is it like when you walk into work every day?
Tim Ekvall: It's very grim in the sense of, you know, in its day, the building we were in was, you know, an amazing, wonderful, well-built building. And, you know, I would love to have visitors if I could at work. And so it's disheartening, you know, walking in, seeing what you see, where all the floors are not maintained, you know. Now we don't lease those, however. … Constantly worrying about, 'When is the roof going to leak again? What other issues do we have, if we have to do some type of upgrade in the tower?' And well, we have asbestos, so that complicates the construction process. Our restroom facilities are not, you know, up to standard, and extremely small and not convenient, as well as the kitchen, and training areas … we're not able to house all the appropriate training equipment that we need to provide the best type of training we can for our new employees as they work through the certification process.
Hannah Alani: There's a big piece of the training, the air traffic simulator … So you actually take your trainees to Moline to do that?
Tim Ekvall: Yeah, the tower simulator is relatively new. … We don't have the space to permanently house one at this facility. However, we would with the new facility being built, we would have that space allowed.
Hannah Alani: How many co-workers do you have, and how many of them are working off site, in another building outside the control tower?
Tim Ekvall: Air traffic control is always located inside the building. Technical operations, I believe, has 10 specific jobs that are off site completely. … I consider myself extremely fortunate as well, do all my co-workers, that we are able to serve the public in this fashion and have such a very unique and challenging career field. You know, we are here to keep everyone safe, and to be there in the event of emergency. And it's incredibly challenging and rewarding. And I'm very grateful for that. It allows me to serve the public in a fashion, and, in aviation, which has always been a very strong interest of mine.
Hannah Alani: You grew up around Peoria, right?
Tim Ekvall: Yes, I grew up in Glasford, Illinois. So it's good to be home. I'm happy to be back here, and see what the future holds here for Peoria.
Ekvall detailed the following challenges facing the current tower:
- Nearly a dozen technical operations employees would ideally work side by side with air traffic controllers, but due to space constraints, they work off site.
- Though the Peoria International Airport is a prominent training facility for new air traffic controllers, recruits must drive to Moline to use an air traffic simulator because the technology cannot physically fit into the Peoria tower.
- Employees are banned from the basement, second, third and fourth floors due to asbestos; tornado evacuation plans are not air quality-tested.
- The tower cannot install WiFi due to asbestos.
- An asbestos event in 2018 cost the FAA $75,000 for air sampling.
- When it rains, water leaks into elevator shafts and multiple windows leak; a new $60,000 roof constructed in 2018 is intended to last 3-5 years.
- There is little-to-no hot water in bathrooms.
- Due to the tower's location and height, employees cannot see a taxiway, holding pad or medevac helicopter base; at times, staff must leave the tower and circle the airport in a minivan to see what’s happening outside.
- Decades-old cables running underneath the airport are out of date and inhibit communication.
- The tower lacks sprinklers and is not fire safety-compliant; to bring the tower into compliance would cost $600,000.
- The tower is not properly grounded for lightning.
- Support beams in the basement are not checked for integrity.
