TULSA, Okla. — Funding for a new control tower for Tulsa International Airport has been added to an appropriations bill moving through Congress.

Chief of Staff for Oklahoma U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe Luke Holland announced Friday that Inhofe has filed an earmark for $20 million to help replace the existing tower.

The current tower was built in 1961 is structurally unstable and temporary repairs can no longer address the overall deficiencies of the building.

The overall costs for a new tower total to around $42 million. State, city, and local entities that also contribute to the operations of the airport will come up with the rest of the funding for the project.

“When you start out with nothing, it’s very hard to raise money if no one else has step forward first,” Holland said. “We hope this will sling shot the efforts to get the rest of what is needed and finally get Tulsa the modern tower it deserves and needs.”

Within the past decade, the tower had to be evacuated for high winds causing it to sway, asbestos, heavy odors from asbestos removal cleaners making controllers sick, and even mechanical failures in the building such as the elevators keeping controllers from reaching the top of the tower and getting down.

According to TIA’s updated master plan, construction for the new tower is set to start at the beginning of 2023 and be completed by the fall of that same year.

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