Relocating the aging air traffic control tower will clear a major obstacle to the airport’s planned terminal modernization and expansion
SHREVEPORT, La. — Shreveport Regional Airport has received an $18.9 million federal grant that airport officials plan to use toward a $40 million air traffic control tower relocation project, a key step in a broader effort to modernize and expand the airport terminal.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced the award Monday as part of more than $1.1 billion in Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Program grants to 280 airports across 46 states and three territories.
The federal announcement describes Shreveport’s $18.9 million award as funding for “terminal expansion.” Airport Director Larry Blackwell said the money is being banked for the plan to construct a new air traffic control tower and demolish the existing tower.
City airport planning documents show why the two projects are closely connected.
The existing tower, constructed in the early 1970s, has reached the end of its usable life, according to a 2023 Shreveport Airport Authority request for architectural and engineering services. Its location immediately adjacent to the terminal also limits the airport’s ability to alter or expand the terminal footprint.
Airport officials have consequently planned the air traffic control tower relocation and terminal modernization as interconnected projects.
The 2023 solicitation said the airport had spent more than a decade studying a major terminal modernization program and the enabling projects necessary to complete it.
The tower project has since moved into the procurement process.
The city sought a construction manager at risk earlier this year for the Shreveport Regional Airport Air Traffic Control Tower Relocation Project. A separate enabling package was also put out for bid as the airport prepared the site for future tower construction.
Bids for that enabling work were later rejected by the city, leaving additional procurement work ahead as the larger project moves forward.
Blackwell told The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate that the overall tower relocation is expected to cost approximately $40 million and will include construction of the new tower and demolition of the existing structure.
The $18.9 million federal award would represent nearly half of that estimated cost before accounting for the state match associated with the grant.
Relocating the tower is expected to give airport planners greater flexibility as they pursue improvements to the passenger terminal and concourses.
The federal funding comes as Shreveport Regional continues several capital improvement efforts aimed at modernizing the airport and positioning it for future passenger and aviation growth.
Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said the latest round of FAA grants is intended to improve airport infrastructure across the country, including terminals, runways, taxiways and other facilities.
For Shreveport, the award moves forward a project that serves two purposes: replacing an aging piece of aviation infrastructure and removing a physical constraint on the airport’s long-planned terminal expansion