FAA shutdown: the economic toll
FAA shutdown is partial: Air-controllers still working, but airport building projects suspended. No immediate solution in view for FAA shutdown.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood talks about the possible shutdown of the FAA during a news conference in Washington July 21, 2011. The FAA shutdown has halted airport construction projects as a political impasse over reauthorization continues.
Susan Walsh/AP
WASHINGTON – In Traverse City, Mich., work on replacing a 30-year-old air traffic control tower at Cherry Capital Airport has been halted. The job was about 40 percent completed, and crews had planned to lift the "cab" section to the top of the tower this week, airport manager Kevin Klein said.
But that was before a legislative stalemate between Republicans and Democrats in Congress forced the partialshutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, the furlough of nearly 4,000 federal workers and the issuance of stop-work orders for dozens of airport construction projects across the country.
"It's very frustrating," Klein said. "It puts about 50 construction workers out of a job. But about 200 people are involved in this some way — designers, engineers, vendors, delivery folks. It's going to be a hardship on them."
The FAA has also told airports to stop work on the installation of runway status lights, a new safety system aimed at preventing planes from colliding on the ground or taking off or landing on closed runways. At McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, construction officials were told Monday that they have until the end of the week to wrap up their work and then stop. Construction on a new airport tower has also been delayed.
"It's depressing," said Sasha Milosavljevich of Archer-Western Contractors, whose company broke ground June 2 on a new 352-foot control tower at McCarran. "You got a site that was flourishing with activity and there's nothing going on right now."
Prospects for quickly ending the legislative dispute between the House and Senate appear grim, with neither side signaling willingness to compromise. The FAA's operating authority expired last week. Air traffic controllers have continued to work, as well as FAA employees who inspect the safety of planes and test pilots.
