Concord Airport Seeks City Match To Grant For New Control Tower

CONCORD, N.C.,None — Concord Regional Airport has asked Concord City Council to match a grant that would help pay for a new air traffic control tower.

The airport, which has been expanding to allow larger aircraft including 737s to land there, needs a taller air traffic control tower, city officials said.

"The tower is too short. We need a taller tower with more space," said Dick Lewis, director of aviation for the city.

The airport is eligible for a $150,000 block grant between the city and the North Carolina Department of Aviation. The city would have to provide a matching grant of 10 percent or $16,667.

The funds will be used for continued design of a replacement air traffic control tower at a location to be determined. Due to Federal Aviation Administration Security regulations, the location of the proposed taller tower has to be changed to meet a 300-foot bomb blast radius requirement, according to city officials.

Lewis said the current tower is a level one tower and is not as busy as some of the other towers in the area.

"We're in a great spot because (air traffic controllers) try to retire out of Charlotte and then they come up here," he said about staffing the tower.

Concord Regional Airport, near Interstate 85 and Poplar Tent Road, has 7,400 feet of runway and recently overlayed and strengthened its runways to support aircraft landing weights of up to 129,000 pounds.

Because it is a general aviation airport, it's mainly charter and private aircraft that take off and land at Concord Regional – corporate jets and small, single-engine planes. Yet it's also one of the busiest general aviation airports in the country.

Lewis said the airport has about 62,000 departures and arrivals a year, on average and 7,500 reported passengers. A good number of those passengers are race teams.

Being home to NASCAR's air force is one of Concord Regional's niches.

Several drivers and owners – including Jack Rousch, Mark Martin, Rick Hendrick, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Burton, to name a few – either own or lease hangars at the airport and house their personal planes there.

From an economic development standpoint, the airport has paid for itself, Mayor Scott Padgett said last month.

"When Electrolux came to Charlotte, their executives flew into our airport," Padgett said. "Even when new investment is not directed to Cabarrus County, we still get the benefit because of that airport."

The city and county also gets tax revenue from the planes and the hangars at the airport.

Concord Regional opened in 1994, and the city has been making upgrades as it could feasibly could. It extended the runway to allow for heavier aircraft, like 737s, larger private jets and turboprop airplanes, to land there. But other upgrades are needed, like a new air traffic control tower.

Lewis said the airport needs a 60-foot tower, which would cost about $3 million, and an expansion of the current terminal building, mainly to accommodate passenger screening.

WSOC