Published October 2003

New control tower to start servicing Paine Field

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

Paine Field’s new $8 million FAA control tower will soon be in service, providing full-field visibility for the first time in many years, as well as more room for air traffic controllers and their equipment.

The dedication of the facility is set for Oct. 31, three decades to the day from the dedication of the old tower. Federal, state and local aviation officials and local dignitaries are expected to attend the ceremony.

Snohomish County Business Journal/ JOHN WOLCOTT This new, $8 million FAA control tower at Paine Field will be dedicated on Oct. 31, exactly 30 years after the dedication of the present tower on that day in 1973.

Over those past 30 years, the growth of the airfield has created line-of-sight problems that could only be solved with a new facility. Controllers have always had full views of the runways, but many portions of the taxiways were hidden behind aircraft hangars and other new buildings, making monitoring and control of aircraft and vehicles on the ground difficult.

Now, the traffic controllers’ glass-office “cab” will sit atop a 162-foot-high pedestal that is nearly twice the height of the old tower, making the handling of aircraft movements on the field much easier for them and much safer for the pilots.

“The initial request for a new tower was made in 1988,” said Sheri Kasen, the FAA’s air traffic manager at the Paine Field tower. “The driving issue was having locations at the airport that we just could not see. The tower means a lot to us in many ways, but one of the most wonderful things is that we can see so many areas we couldn’t before. Also, being twice as high provides a whole new perspective in handling air traffic.”

Next to more visibility, Kasen is enthused about having more space for staff and equipment. The new tower has a 400-square-foot cab compared to the 250-square-foot area of the old tower.

“We have 11 controllers covering our daily 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. shifts, usually with a couple to open in the morning, one during the middle of the day and two on in the evening,” Kasen said. “When it’s busy or we add more staff we’re working in pretty close quarters. The extra space will be a tremendous asset.”

There will also be more state-of-the-art traffic control equipment in the new tower, such as new radios and touch-screen computers, she said, but since the FAA regularly updates tower communication systems and related equipment, “we’ll be moving a lot of things over from the old tower, too.”

An unusual aspect of the tower’s construction is that it was built with a steel-plate shear system instead of a conventional lateral load-resisting system. The shear walls brought to the site were bolted to the tower’s frame at the mid-height of each floor instead of being welded together, increasing the strength of the building, simplifying construction and reducing costs.

Construction was finished last fall, but the past year has provided time to install, test and calibrate new equipment in the tower.

“We plan to open the tower by mid-month, so there will be controllers working there before we have the dedication,” Kasen said. “After the dedication, the FAA will decommission the old tower, following the removal of the last of the equipment, and have it dismantled.”

Paine Field is primarily a general aviation facility but also provides air traffic control for flights of Boeing aircraft being test-flown or delivered from the adjacent 747-767-777 assembly plant in Everett.

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