Sunset view of former Peoria International Airport terminal building and control tower.  Photo by News Bulletin staff. 

PEORIA —Peoria Metro Construction has started to dismantle the exterior of the former Gen. Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport terminal building that serviced airline passengers for 72 years.

The Metropolitan Airport Authority of Peoria approved a nearly $3 million bid by Peoria Metro Construction in October for the demolition work that will eliminate much of the lobby as well as ticketing and boarding gate areas. The only structure that will remain in the old terminal building will be the air traffic control tower.
“The air traffic control tower is still operational in that building and the parts that are going to remain are the parts that hold the structure up,” said Gene Olson, director of the Gen. Wayne Downing Peoria International Airport.
In mid-November, Peoria Metro Construction started to remove asbestos in the interior of the old terminal building.
“There was some asbestos abatement that had to be done before they could actually start taking pieces apart,” said Olson. “A lot of that work wasn’t visible. They’ve finished that work.”
On December 9, Peoria Metro Construction started the exterior demolition of old terminal building with the dismantling of the facility’s lower level concrete canopy. However, the construction company was forced to temporarily cease the exterior demolition a week later because of a Federal Aviation Administration holiday moratorium.
“We’re in what’s called an FAA moratorium because the FAA is still using this as a control tower,” said Olson. “So between December 16 and January 3 the FAA doesn’t allow any construction work on their facilities because of increased Christmas travel. On January 3, we anticipate that the exterior demolition will resume.”
Once the exterior demolition resumes, Peoria Metro Construction will continue to dismantle and remove the lower level concrete canopy.
“They’re going to start kind of in the southeast corner of the building, which is over in the concourse area,” said Olson. “Then they’ll work their way clockwise around the building.”
According to the PIA website, while the lower level concrete canopy is being demolished, the sidewalk that leads to the rental car area in the main lot will be closed. To reach the rental area car area during the demolition, rental car customers must enter the center doors of the new terminal building that opened adjacent to the old terminal building on April 27, 2011, and follow the signs that will be posted to help them find their cars.
The demolition will also cause small alterations of the vehicle patterns in the parking lot. Signage will be installed to help people find the safest route from the parking lot into the new terminal.
A map detailing the demolition area is posted on the PIA website, www.flypia.com.
The demolition work will be complete in May or June of 2012, said Olson.
Once the demolition is complete, airport officials would like to move some of their rental cars between the air traffic control tower and the new terminal building.
“We’d like to move the rental cars to between the old terminal and the new terminal,” said Olson. “We’re certainly not going to have enough room up there to move all of the rental cars there, so we may be moving a piece of it.”
Airport officials will eventually build a new air traffic control tower and demolish the current air traffic control tower. After the current air traffic control tower is demolished, airport officials will move all of the rental cars on the site of the old terminal building.
“The long-term plan is to move all that up there (old terminal site),” said Olson.
After conducting a site selection study, airport officials have determined the site for their new air traffic control tower that will be located between the old terminal building and the Byerly Aviation building.
“We analyzed like 14 sites and analyzed four in very great detail and this was the best of them all,” said Olson. “The site location that was chosen was dictated by line of sight criteria because the controls have to be able to see all of the runways and taxiways.
“You want to pick the tower location that can have the shortest tower because that’s less expensive. The preferred site that we have actually is the shortest one of all.”
According to Olson, it would cost between $15-20 million for the PIA to build a new air traffic control tower.
“We’ve got some rough ideas based on what other control tower projects have cost,” said Olson.