Congressional inaction delays McCarran airport tower

WASHINGTON -- Work on a new air traffic control tower at McCarran International Airport was halted after Congress failed to renew the authority of the Federal Aviation Administration to do business.

About 40 workers were scheduled to be on the site Monday, but FAA officials issued stop work orders late Friday for the $43 million Las Vegas project and dozens of others around the nation.

Construction of McCarran's $2.4 billion Terminal 3, which is to open next year, is not affected.

The House and Senate hit an impasse last week over a bill that would keep the FAA in operation until Sept. 16 while negotiations continued on a long-term reauthorization bill. The agency's authorization expired at midnight Friday.

Air traffic controllers remain on the job, and other safety functions are operational. But FAA engineering inspectors are deemed nonessential personnel, and projects that require them to be on-site are halted.

In a conference call Monday with reporters, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called the McCarran tower project "critical" for the future of the airport, which has seen passenger volume increase almost 4 percent through June. In 2010, McCarran handled nearly 39.8 million passengers.

"Las Vegas is one of our more high priority tower projects," LaHood said.

Counting support personnel and subcontractors, about 60 people are affected by the stoppage, which could add costs of $8,500 to $8,700 per day, said Sasha Milosavljevich, project manager for Archer Western Contractors.

Milosavljevich said the added costs are for maintenance and security of the construction site and equipment paid by the FAA and borne by taxpayers.

"We're not sure if we're talking two days, five days or 30 days," Milosavljevich said of the work stoppage. The tower project was in the early stages of development.

"Now everything is slipping," Milosavljevich said. "In the construction world, you only get paid when you work."

Darren Enns, secretary-treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council, said the workers sent home from McCarran on Monday are just a small part of the project. Some 160 construction workers have been pre-approved to work on the tower, which could employ from 600 to 1,000 workers during its two-year building process.

"For us locally, we've been excited to see these jobs," Enns said. "This hurts because this project would employ workers across all the building trades."

LaHood took several swipes at Congress during the half-hour conference call, saying the government's nonaction on the FAA budget damages the construction industry, which has been hit hard by the recession.

"Construction workers across America will lose their jobs, and local communities will be hurt the longer this goes on. Congress needs to pass an FAA bill to prevent further economic damage," LaHood said. "This is no way to run the best aviation system in the world."

Some 4,000 FAA employees were furloughed over the weekend, but only one is in Las Vegas -- the engineer overseeing work at the McCarran tower.

Federal and local officials broke ground in May for the new tower, which at 352 feet will be nearly double the height of the current tower. Work began June 2 on the project, which is expected to take three years, including installation of hardware and electronics. It's unclear whether the shutdown will change the schedule.

The sidelined workers were drilling caissons for the foundation of the tower and base building, working on utility connections and preparing for delivery this week of the base for a tower crane.

The current tower, built in 1983, hasn't kept pace with the rapidly growing airport, and controllers contend with some blind spots where additions and newer buildings block their view of some taxiways.

"This is an issue that would be taken care of by the new tower," FAA Public Affairs Manager Ian Gregor said. "The current tower is perfectly safe but just not as efficient as a new tower."

The FAA issued dozens of stop work orders, including halts to new air traffic control towers in Palm Springs and Oakland, Calif., Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Kalamazoo, Mich., Gulfport, Miss., and Queens, N.Y.

FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said more projects will come to a halt "unless Congress acts quickly," but there was no indication of progress Monday.

Lawmakers are split over provisions in a House-passed, short-term FAA bill that would cut $16.5 million from the Essential Air Service program, which subsidizes commercial service to remote communities.

The House bill threatened to eliminate service to 13 communities including Ely, where Great Lakes Airlines gets what amounts to a subsidy of $3,270 per passenger for a daily flight to Las Vegas.

The bill would limit subsidies to $1,000 per ticket, which also would have affected service in Alamogordo, N.M., and Glendive, Mont. Restrictions on subsidies to 10 airports within 90 miles of a hub airport were also an issue.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other Democrats want a short-term FAA bill free of such riders and refuse to go along with the House-passed measure.

"Despite the thousands of workers furloughed and vital job-creating construction projects halted in Nevada and throughout the country, Republicans are nowhere to be found -- refusing to come back to the negotiating table after pulling yet another cheap political stunt," Reid said Monday.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., also blamed Republicans.

"Republicans have now forced the FAA to suspend construction on the new McCarran tower and that means the men and women working on this project will not be bringing home a paycheck to support their families," she said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., blamed Senate Democrats for going home on Friday without considering the FAA bill passed by the House.

"I voted for this bill to protect the jobs of Nevadans working on McCarran Airport's new traffic control tower," Heck said. "Unfortunately, the same day it was reported that Clark County's unemployment rose from 12.4 percent to 13.8 percent, the Senate recessed without considering the FAA funding extension. Because of the Senate's decision, Nevadans working on McCarran's new traffic control tower will suffer."

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760. Contact reporter Howard Stutz at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3871. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.