FAA Shutdown Causes Problems At Palm Springs Airport

Congress hasn’t agreed on a long-term solution to fund the Federal Aviation Administration, causing 4,000 workers to be furloughed.

It also means construction on the new air traffic control tower at Palm Springs International Airport stands incomplete and open to the elements.

“I have a situation in my home county, in Riverside, where we have a new airport tower being put up,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. on the Senate floor. “Unexpectedly, there was a rainstorm the day before yesterday, and because nobody was working there, they couldn’t do anything about it to protect the facility. We have damage.

“We are losing money because of this terrible shutdown,” she said.

Palm Springs International Airport Executive Director Tom Nolan addressed the recent rain and its effects.

“There is a little drywall that’s been put up on the interior wall, and some of the roofing isn’t complete so some of the water did seep down,” he said. “Maybe 10 percent is the estimate of the drywall that’s been affected.”

The $25 million project is scheduled to be finished around the end of 2012, depending on when the 4,000 furloughed workers get their jobs back.

“As soon as the government applies the appropriate legislation to pay the FAA workers and the contractors to return, the project will resume normal work,” Nolan said.

Until that happens, Nolan’s hands are tied.

FAA administrators and airport construction workers need the Senate to come to an agreement soon. Otherwise, they said, an even bigger storm could hit — an economic one.

“If you ask most Americans, they really do live pretty much paycheck to paycheck,” Boxer said.