Army to build new airport control tower at Fort Benning to handle military air traffic control
SAVANNAH, Ga. – U.S. Army aviation officials are building a new airport control tower at Fort Benning, Ga., to support a wide variety of military air operations, ranging from large transport aircraft to parachute drops.
Officials of the Army Corps of Engineers in Savannah, Ga., announced a $10.7 million contract on Friday to ACC Construction Co. Inc. in Augusta, Ga., to build a 12-story flight control tower to replace the existing eight-story tower on the site.
The airport at Fort Benning is called Lawson Army Airfield (KLSF). The facility has a 10,002-by-150-foot runway that handles extensive troop carrier operations, parachute drops, helicopter operations, and flights from large military transport aircraft like the C-5 Galaxy.
The new control tower at Fort Benning's Lawson Army Airfield will house air traffic control equipment like computers, data networking, displays, communications rooms and electrical rooms.
The tower also will have a mechanical room, tower cab with exterior cat walk, administrative spaces, equipment spaces, locker room with shower, restrooms, elevator, and self-contained heating and air-conditioning system.
In addition, it will have electrical generator backup power, building information systems, fire detection, fire pump, and fire-suppression and -alarm systems, closed-circuit TV, intrusion detection, and utility monitoring control systems (UMCS).
The contract to ACC construction calls for deep pile foundation construction, site demolition and development, utilities, and connections, lighting, lightning protection system, walks, curbs and gutters, fire access lanes, paving, storm drainage, information systems, perimeter fencing with gates, landscaping, and signage. The job should take about a hear and a half.
Lawson Army Airfield serves as the air terminal for major forces command units, the U.S. Army Infantry School, and the aviation units at Fort Benning. It also is the operating base for Military Airlift Command flights for Fort Benning-based Army units, which involve the C-5, C-17, C-141, and C-130 military fixed-wing aircraft, as well as civilian contract or chartered jet aircraft.
Related: Army begins acceptance of mobile military air traffic control towers from Sierra Nevada
Lawson Army Airfield opened in 1931. Fort Benning opened in 1918, and is home for the U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence, the Army Armor School, Army Infantry School, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, elements of the Army 75th Ranger Regiment, Martin Army Community Hospital, and other tenant units.
Fort Benning supports more than 120,000 active-duty military, family members, reserve component soldiers, retirees, and civilian employees.
For more information contact ACC Construction Co. online at www.accconstructionco.com, the Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District at www.sas.usace.army.mil, Lawson Army Airfield at www.benning.army.mil/MCoE/G3/Lawson.html, or Fort Benning at www.benning.army.mil.
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John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
