When Tracy Williams took over as manager of the Bend Municipal Airport in 2020, she made a series of grant applications in a push to pick up the pieces of a project that had fallen by the wayside: building an air traffic control tower.

The final piece of the $15 million project fell into place on Monday, when federal lawmakers announced $3.7 million for the new tower, which will bring greater safety to Central Oregon skies.

“It is very exciting,” Williams said Monday.

As of now, pilots must communicate with each other directly to coordinate who’s next to take off and land. With the new tower, an air traffic controller will orchestrate takeoffs and landings from a perch high above the runway.

“There is no other facility in the area that is 115 feet in the air that can provide for a visual approach and departure,” Williams said. “This will be the tallest building in the city of Bend.”

Construction will begin Wednesday and is expected to finish up some time in 2025.

Of Oregon’s 97 public airports, eight have air traffic control towers, according to Williams. Bend will be the state’s ninth tower.

Bend’s airport, which goes by the code KBDN, is the third busiest in the state, and the only one of Oregon’s top-five busiest airports without a tower to direct air traffic, according to the city of Bend.

The airport, which is located on 420 acres in northeast Bend, doesn’t host commercial flights.

The Bend Municipal Airport has around 140,000 takeoffs and landings per year, which is 380 per day, compared to Redmond’s roughly 70,000 per year.

Redmond is the state’s fifth busiest airport. That, along with other smaller airports in the area, makes for a congested airspace, Williams said.

Bend’s grant is part of a $17 million aviation funding package for Oregon airports. The awards come through the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program.

“Oregon’s airports connect communities across our state to the rest of the world — supporting local businesses, transporting goods, connecting travelers to world-class recreational opportunities, and providing essential lifelines during natural disasters,” U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley said in a news release.

Bend’s $3.7 million award was the second-largest of the package behind Portland International Airport’s $7.8 million grant. Redmond Airport received $1.3 million.

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