Delaney Otto
Grand Forks Herald
(TNS)

Oct. 22—GRAND FORKS — A new air traffic control tower at Grand Forks International Airport will be twice the size as the existing tower, which is almost 40 years old.

GFK Director Ryan Riesinger, standing at the construction site, said 120 pilings are being driven 80 feet into the ground to support the new tower.

"Like many large-scale capital projects, this one has been discussed and planned for many years," he said. "We're excited to celebrate today."

The groundbreaking was held Thursday, Oct. 22. Along with Riesinger, U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and Rebecca MacPherson, regional administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration Great Lakes Region, were present for the event. The new tower will be 197 feet tall, almost twice as tall as the existing 98-foot-tall tower.

"The new tower will be the third-tallest building in the state of North Dakota," he said.

According to a press release, Hoeven worked as a member of the Senate Transportation Appropriations Committee to provide the FAA's Air Traffic Control Tower Replacement program with the funding required for the $74 million project to replace the existing facility. According to agency documents, the FAA started to explore replacing the tower in December 2024. Riesinger said at the groundbreaking that the idea went back to 2017.

"Much work has gone into the planning and the design, funding, bidding and mobilizing of this project just to get to this point," he said.

Hoeven said the airport had 320,996 takeoffs and landings in 2025, more than the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport's 297,737 and comparable to the Minneapolis airport's around 340,000.

MacPherson said the original tower was built in 1988. At that time UND had 481 students in its flight programs — now, it has more than 2,200 students, logging nearly triple the number of flight training hours annually. There has been about a 50% increase in airport operations over the past 40 years, she said.

The new tower will accommodate more air traffic controllers and have state-of-the-art equipment for managing the system. There will also be an air traffic controller simulation system put into the tower.

"This is a very important initiative for the FAA," she said.

Hoeven also highlighted other projects at the airport — the ongoing $60 million reconstruction of the airport's primary runway, which is expected to be completed in 2028, and the $70 million extension and reconstruction of the airport's crosswind runway, which was completed in 2024. He additionally commended the University of North Dakota for its aviation and aerospace education, including its qualification for the Enhanced Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative, which allows graduates air traffic control graduates to bypass the first five weeks of initial qualification training in Oklahoma City.

"Grand Forks is red hot," Hoeven said. "Grand Forks is leading the way."

MacPherson added that the "bread and butter of the airport really is UND."

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