New McCarran air traffic control tower finally ready to open Sunday
Nearly a year behind schedule, the new air traffic control tower at McCarran International Airport will finally open Sunday.
Construction of the $99 million facility began in May 2011, but was stalled by a pair a government shutdowns, followed by the discovery of a massive construction error that kept it from opening on time.
Forty air traffic controllers will start monitoring planes passing through the nation’s eighth-busiest airport atop the 352-foot-tall tower. The facility includes a two-level parking garage, a guard station and a 52,800-square-foot, four-story office building at the tower’s base for Terminal Radar Approach Control, where another 49 controllers will work.
The tower is coming online as McCarran International reports a surge in passenger traffic not seen since 2007. The airport served 530,330 flights last year, nearly quadruple the 140,000 flights recorded when the current tower opened in 1983, McCarran and FAA officials said.
Contact Art Marroquin at amarroquin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Follow @AMarroquin_LV on Twitter.