A $4.8 million grant has been awarded to the City of Bend to build an air traffic control tower at Bend Municipal Airport, the city announced Thursday. It will fill a need pilots have been requesting for years to improve safely for arriving and departing planes.
Bend Municipal is the third-busiest public-use airport in Oregon. But airport manager Tracy Williams said it’s the only one in the top five that does not have a dedicated air traffic control tower.
The need for a tower was on display Thursday. Standing on the heather grey tarmac, you could hear crackling through Williams’, walkie talkie. There was an incident. A plane spun out on the tarmac, forcing an arriving flight to circle around and wait to land.
“We have quite a few near-misses throughout the year and so far we’ve been blessed to not have any accidents,” said Nelson Carrick, the Regional Manager for Leading Edge Jet Center, a company that works through the Bend Airport.
All of the communication to both planes was done entirely through walkie-talkies and boots on the ground, something an airport control tower could make safer.
The airport currently has 141,000 annual take-offs and landings, the city said. An air traffic control tower will help ensure aircraft are separated and sequenced. It will also help prevent conflicts with aircraft heading to and from airports in Redmond, Prineville and Madras.
“Being a municipality, we have to be out front and design and prepare for that growth,” said Williams. “If we wait for the demand to occur, then we’re too late.”
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“There really hasn’t been any kind of growth to address the corporate needs here,” Carrick said “There’s a lot of corporate aircraft moving in here now.”
Additionally, more organized air traffic can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the city said.
The control tower is tentatively scheduled to open by late 2025. It’s expected to stand 80 to 100 feet tall at the edge of the 420-acre airport.
The $4.8 million grant from the Department of Transportation’s Connect Oregon will cover 65% of the cost of the project, estimated at $7.5 million. The city plans to ask the federal government for the remaining amount.
“However, with the pandemic and supply chain issues, we’re anticipating that number is going to grow and has grown over the last year at about 25%,” Williams said.
An open house will be held Monday, May 23, from 5-7 p.m. at CJ’s Airport Cafe to hear about updates and the airport master plan.
The other Oregon public-use airports in the top five are in Portland, Hillsborough, Troutdale and Redmond, Williams said.
