Birmingham Airport to get new £10m control tower
02.04.11
A new state of the art control tower is to be built at Birmingham Airport at a cost of £10 million, the Post reports. Work on the new building will start in May but it will be two years before it is operational because of the complexity of the new equipment being installed.
The new 115ft tower will be built on a 33ft high hill. It will dominate the western side of the airport and be easily visible from the A45. Once commissioned it will take over from the original control tower, which is situated at the old Elmdon Airport site and has been in use since 1939. The move from Elmdon to the current airport location took place in 1984 but use of the old 79ft high tower continued.
The new building will give air traffic controllers a better view over new buildings that have been built on the airport complex and will allow them to see to the end of the new 400-metre runway extension that it hopes to build.
Will Heynes, the airport’s operation director, said the airport would be seeking ideas for the use of the old control tower when it was decommissioned. He said: ‘It’s a lovely 1930s Art Deco building that we are obliged to keep in its present form and we are looking for ideas for a new use for it. It’s a large building in a prime location with spectacular views and we are open to suggestions.’
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