New control tower coming to Lawton airport in 2025

Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport is in the final stage of setting a project to build a new air traffic control tower.

But construction won’t begin until 2025.

Airport Director Barbara McNally said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approached Lawton in Summer 2022 about replacing its control tower, a structure that dates to the 1960s and one that no longer is completely adequate to meet airport needs.

“Visibility is the main point,” McNally said, explaining one of the problems with the 49-foot control tower is that officials working there cannot see the south end of the runway — or aircraft there — because of a slope in the runway.

The new tower will resolve that problem, she said. Not only will the new tower be 80 feet tall, it will be placed farther south along the west edge of the runway. The new site is mid-field, rather than just south of the Bishop School property to the west, and is closer to the runway (the existing tower is closer to South Sheridan Road).

McNally said the new tower will cost $23.53 million, a cost that will be covered completely by the FAA because there isn’t any local match requirement. The project makes Lawton one of 30 airports expected to receive new air traffic control towers by 2030, funded through Congress’ bipartisan infrastructure bill as a way to modernize control towers. The towers fall under a program that is creating a prototype that can be replicated all over the country, with adjustments to be made at each airport to ensure it fits into that environment and landscape, McNally said.

Because Lawton’s air traffic control towers will be located in two different spots, McNally said the existing tower will continue to operate with any adjustments until the new tower is ready. She said while the project is slated to begin in early 2025, FAA officials haven’t said how long construction will take.

In the meantime, Lawton officials are continuing to address another control tower need: radar. Lawton airport relies on Fort Sill for radar, but McNally said the FAA is talking to the Department of Defense to see if there is a way to bring radar capability from Fort Sill to the Lawton tower. Civilian air traffic controllers have said they sometimes have no idea of military traffic over Fort Sill unless they talk to those post officials, a situation that could be eased with a facility in the civilian control tower.

It’s a situation created by having a military installation adjacent to a civilian town with an airport, Lawton officials said.

“We’re working on it,” McNally said.