marchapril2021 - 36
MILITARY
AUTHOR Walker Jaroch
Designing a
Modern Lighthouse
Last year, McConnell Air Force Base received
a new and much needed air traffic control
tower, replacing its former from the 1950s.
MCCONNELL AIR Force Base has itself a new
10-story air traffic control tower (ATCT) - a
much needed upgrade from its former ATCT
built in the 1950s.
McConnell Air
Force Base's
new 10-story air
traffic control
tower was built
just feet away
from the site
of the base's
former tower.
BURNS & MCDONNELL
" It [the former ATCT] was much smaller, it was outdated - didn't have
nearly as much of the current technology and it was much shorter, " said Andy
Mashek, project manager, Burns & McDonnell. " So, if you think about what an
air traffic control tower does, line of sight is the first thing you always think about
and talk about when you're designing an air traffic control tower. So, it was fairly
short. Because obviously, when it was built in the fifties, they weren't trying to
see and stretch that line of sight nearly as far as they are today. It definitely had
significant system challenges throughout its lifespan. "
As such, when designing the new tower the first thing the team at Burns
& McDonnell did was a line of sight study, making sure that the new tower
had ample view of all the areas and aspects of the airfield and different aircraft
movements. Design of the project began in 2016 and lasted roughly eight months,
with construction beginning near the summer of 2017.
The work faced two major hurdles from the get-go. The first was the challenge
of working on an active military airfield, needing to phase work to not interrupt
the ongoing missions.
" With having an active mission, again, we couldn't just shut down the old
tower, build a new one and be good to go, " said Mashek.
" It's one thing just to show up with your truck, pull into a construction site
and start working. Whereas when you're working on a military base, everybody
has to go through the gate every morning, just like everyone else, so that slows
down say if you have a concrete pour, a steel delivery, all that fun stuff has to go
through the gate, " he continued. " And then you add one more level of complexity
with this being on the airfield. So not only do you have to go through the base
gate, then you're also going through the airfield access gate. So, you've got that
one more layer. Then you're building adjacent to an active airfield, so everything
you do, you have to have that mindset. "
Then, when the team went to view the initial site selected for
the ATCT, they found there was a main communication
line running just underneath the building's footprint.
" So again, not wanting to disrupt the base as
best we could, we ended up working
36 \ AIRPORTBUSINESS / MARCH/APRIL 2021
marchapril2021
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of marchapril2021
The $7 Million Man
Industry Update
A New Normal in Airport Parking and Transportation
The Rise of Robots
Boarding Bridges the Holistic Way
A Brave New World
The Trouble with Tribal Knowledge
Doing it Right: Public Sector FBOs
Reconstructing One of New England's Longest Commericial Service Runways
Designing a Modern Lighthouse
Sensor Technology's One-Two Punch: Improving Winter Maintenance Operations and Meeting ICAO GRF Regulations
Caution: Closure Ahead
marchapril2021 - 1
marchapril2021 - 2
marchapril2021 - 3
marchapril2021 - 4
marchapril2021 - The $7 Million Man
marchapril2021 - Industry Update
marchapril2021 - 7
marchapril2021 - 8
marchapril2021 - 9
marchapril2021 - 10
marchapril2021 - 11
marchapril2021 - A New Normal in Airport Parking and Transportation
marchapril2021 - 13
marchapril2021 - The Rise of Robots
marchapril2021 - 15
marchapril2021 - 16
marchapril2021 - 17
marchapril2021 - Boarding Bridges the Holistic Way
marchapril2021 - 19
marchapril2021 - 20
marchapril2021 - 21
marchapril2021 - A Brave New World
marchapril2021 - 23
marchapril2021 - 24
marchapril2021 - 25
marchapril2021 - The Trouble with Tribal Knowledge
marchapril2021 - 27
marchapril2021 - 28
marchapril2021 - Doing it Right: Public Sector FBOs
marchapril2021 - 30
marchapril2021 - 31
marchapril2021 - Reconstructing One of New England's Longest Commericial Service Runways
marchapril2021 - 33
marchapril2021 - 34
marchapril2021 - 35
marchapril2021 - Designing a Modern Lighthouse
marchapril2021 - 37
marchapril2021 - Sensor Technology's One-Two Punch: Improving Winter Maintenance Operations and Meeting ICAO GRF Regulations
marchapril2021 - 39
marchapril2021 - Caution: Closure Ahead
marchapril2021 - 41
marchapril2021 - 42
marchapril2021 - 43
marchapril2021 - 44
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