Airport To Get A “Control Tower”
New design scheme goes to FAA

April 27, 2005

  The Mammoth Yosemite Airport would get a control tower as part of new design elements submitted to the federal government on Wednesday.
    The tower would manage ground traffic when commercial airlines are operating, according to Robert Clark, the town manager of Mammoth Lakes.
    The addition of a control tower was part of a revised plan submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is holding funds that would be used to expand the current airport to one that could handle bigger commercial aircraft than it already does.
    The cost for construction of the tower, Clark said, “”is less than $500,000,” and would be funded “from airport revenues.”
    Staffing the control tower is still a question, he said.
    “It would be operated by someone we hire or by contract,” he said.
    According to a press release distributed by the town on Wednesday, the addition of the control tower solves an earlier conundrum having to do with the required separation of the main runway and the taxiway.
    Under the town’s previous plans, the town would not be able to make that distance safe for larger aircraft such as a B757-200—a Boeing plane that is believed to be one of several aircraft that commercial airlines would land at the facility.
    Instead, the town suggested the control tower.
    “The proposed tower will be able to visually see and control airplanes on the taxiway and assure that there are no conflicts while commercial aircraft are landing,” the press release said.
    In addition to the addition of a control tower, the town said it would lower the fencing separating the highway from the runway, thereby solving the riddle of how to buy 50 more feet of clearance on that side.  By lowering the fence to below the plane of the runway, the fence no longer poses an obstacle.
    Finally, the town changed the distance on its “object-free” zones on either end of the runway, proposing 1,000 feet rather than 500 feet.