The Tyler Pounds Regional Airport will soon replace their 75-year-old air traffic control tower that is past its lifespan, and will fix line of sight issues for the air traffic controllers.
The City of Tyler operates the airport, and at Wednesday’s city council meeting, the city accepted the over $1 million award by the Federal Aviation Administration which will go towards creating a design and selecting a location for the tower.
“This was a competitive process where we had to compete against airports all across the country. So we were one of three airports in Texas that were actually awarded this sum of money.” said Tyler Pounds Regional Airport Director, Steve Thompson. “1.1 million dollars will be a great start to the site survey and the design. Of course, we’ll have to go back and compete again for funds to construct the tower.”
A study will be conducted by by KSA Engineers, Inc. to determine where the tower will be located. That study comes at a cost of $267,064.