Southwest Florida International Airport's new tower to usher in new future

Southwest Florida International Airport is celebrating the completion of a new $80 million air traffic control tower building that reaches 225 feet into the sky, preparing the Lee County flight hub for growth well into its future.

The new tower is essential to meet the Lee County Port Authority's long-term plan to construct a major new runway.

Two minute look: See time lapse video of the new tower construction

Rather than getting in line behind other airports, the port authority wanted to be ready for the $300 million to $400 million estimated cost of a new runway and chose to build the new tower well before the new runway is built.

"You can’t have a parallel runway without this tower because with the existing tower you cannot see certain pieces of that future parallel runway," said Ben Siegel, executive director of the Lee County Port Authority. "We need to have lines of sight to all different areas of the runway. The existing tower was not adequate."

Read more: New service, flights coming to Southwest Florida International

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And: Southwest Florida International Airport sees stunning recovery from pandemic

The tower now in use was built in 1982 in preparation for the opening in spring of 1983 of what was then Southwest Florida Regional Airport.

Design work for the new tower was done by Pond & Company, a Georgia-based engineering company that has worked on airport projects for decades.

David Woods, program manager for Pond's aviation facilities division, said the new RSW tower is unusual in that the airport is paying for it with no financial help from the Federal Aviation Administration.

"They actually looked out to the FAA to say, 'We're doing this," Woods said. "This is the first tower with zero federal dollars. The federal government did not pay for this; the airport is paying for this."

The $80 million cost was split between the state Department of Transportation and port authority income from airport operations.

County Commissioner Kevin Ruane, chairman of the port authority board, stressed the importance of the new tower to the region's economic future.

"Southwest Florida International (airport) is a vital part of the air transportation system that helps connect our region to the rest of the world and allows us access to the global marketplace," Ruane said.

A strong comeback from the decline in air travel experienced during the coronavirus pandemic

The airport has made a strong comeback from the decline in air travel experienced during the coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020.

"We’re in record-breaking growth right now. We’re the number one among the top airports in the country in terms of recovery," Siegel said. "We have recovered 100 percent."

He added that the airport has reached service levels seen in pre-pandemic 2019, which he called the busiest year in airport history.

Unlike the existing tower, which is basically a tower with a box on top, the new tower was intended to make a design statement.

While the fundamental requirements for traffic control towers are set by the federal government, the look of the tower was more important than the design of the existing one nearly four decades ago.

"The aesthetic way they wanted it to look gave us the opportunity to enhance the tower," Woods said. "Some of the sloping walls, silver metallic metal, we did some things that would help emphasize and tie it together so it didn't look so lopsided."

With the construction of the tower complete, the federal government will supervise installation of the electronic equipment needed.

The FAA will install air traffic control equipment to guide flights within a 30-nautical-mile radius.

Traffic to RSW is growing

Traffic to RSW is growing at a time when some adjustments have been made to tourism advertising campaigns promoting beaches. Tourists are being lured to the "beaches of Fort Myers" rather than the beaches of Southwest Florida and Sanibel as in past campaigns.

While no plans to change the airport name have surfaced, Commissioner Brian Hamman said people traveling to Southwest Florida International Airport see it as the Fort Myers airport.

"When you go to other airports and you're flying here, to RSW, the sign says you're going to Fort Myers," Hamman said. "Fort Myers is really the front door to our area, that is what they told us in the marketing campaign, that's why they used that name Fort Myers to really tie in with the airport."

RSW air traffic tower quick facts

Height: 225 feet, 105 feet above the existing tower

Support: 226 75-foot concrete pilings driven into the earth

Weight of concrete: 8.5 million pounds

Cost: $80 million

Material: Precast concrete to 198 feet, steel above

Hurricane wind rating: 170 mph (category 5 winds are +155 mph)

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: RSW airport tower construction complete, lays groundwork for new runway