City accepts FAA control tower funds

Things are moving full steam ahead on the planned air traffic control tower at the Boulder City Airport.

Last Tuesday, City Council passed five resolutions regarding the tower. Three were related to accepting of grant funding from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) totaling $23.6 million for the tower’s construction and related improvements.

The remaining two resolutions passed by council were for a construction agreement with Q&D Construction, Inc. in the amount of $21,066,322 and with Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. in the amount of $2,946,846.00 for construction management services.

Funding for the project totals $24,548,891, which includes nearly $1 million from the city’s Airport Fund.

“The Boulder City Municipal Airport supports a diverse mix of general aviation, flight training, helicopter, commercial air-tour, and aircraft maintenance activity,” a city report states. “The volume and complexity of these operations led the city to pursue an air traffic control tower to improve the safe, orderly, and efficient movement of aircraft.”

Boulder City Airport has become the third busiest in Nevada based on enplanements, for private and commercial use. It will be the sixth airport in the state to have a tower. According to the city, the project is currently in the design phase with construction expected to start this fall. The project has a completion date of summer 2028.

The project consists of the construction of a new air traffic control tower and associated support buildings. In 2011, the city applied to the FAA’s Federal Contract Tower Program, which evaluates an airport’s benefit to cost ratio to determine if the operational and safety benefits of a control tower outweigh the associated cost of staffing the facility.

In August 2024 an Environmental Assessment for the proposed project was completed to analyze the potential environmental impacts of the proposed aviation project to determine if there would be a significant effect on the human environment. The FAA issued a ‘Finding of No Significant Impact’ associated with the proposed air traffic control tower facility. On July 31, 2024, the FAA issued a final determination with no objection to the construction of the proposed tower.

“In making this determination, the FAA has considered matters such as the effects the proposal would have on existing or planned traffic patterns of neighboring airports, the effects it would have on the existing airspace structure and projected programs of the FAA, the effects it would have on the safety of persons and property on the ground, and the effects that existing or proposed man-made objects, and known natural objects within the affected area would have on the airport proposal,” the FAA stated in that 2024 letter.