Hi,
It’s been a few weeks since I drove by the airport, but Saturday saw what looks to be another tower being built by the UAL/AA maint. hangers.
Am i high, or is this in preperation for the restructuring of the airport?
Would in split controller duties for the West end of the field??
Thanks for any info.
Neil 
I don’t fully know the answer to your question, but depending on how big this new tower appears, it might be a ramp control “tower”. Airlines contact ramp control for pushback instructions and taxi to a designated “spot” (like ‘spot six’ for instance) before contacting ground. Likewise, the ground control hands off the responsibilty to the ramp control when the arriving aircraft reaches the ramp area.
…or it might be a completely new tower, dunno.
Thanks for your reply.
I understand and know all you refer to, but curious - if it were to be a ramp control, would they not need visual reference to the main ramp area per-say? This tower is situated all the way northwest by the maintanance hangers, and currently looking pretty tall even though incomplete.
Appreciate your reply my friend, take care.
Neil 8)
Well being that I am currently working on this tower along with another O’hare project you are questioning about…check it out…
airport-technology.com/proje … cago2.html
airport-technology.com/projects/chicago/
Yea your right, its for the upcoming new configuration, will be used in tandem with the other 2 towers I am told. Although to the best of my knowledge the old tower is just now used as ground control. well atleast it WAS when they built the new one about 10 years back
Shabo!
Thanks buddy, awsome stuff. And that is one funky looking tower to boot!!
I wonder who wil have the priveledge of using the new terminal?? (or did I miss that in the article - I’ll go re-read it).
When all is said and done, KORD will be one mutha of an airport!
Thanks much,
Neil 8)
Ye ano kidding, I was there during my apprentiship working on the United Terminal, now to be back build this new tower is something that i hold very close to my heart. Being a pilot myself as well as a aviation buff, getting to spend the next 5-10 years at Ohare is quite nice. Yea as for the “whos gonna be in there” we were on a lunch break last week and some FAA guru cam by and was talking about it being the tower controllers up there, and the old tower (which I built 7 years ago) is gonna be for ground controllers (better vantage point) I dont see why though we r putting this new tower on the side of the airport, but if you know where it is, it is well out of the way of ANY air traffic, and has a view of EVERY terminal on the grounds, wierd backwards thinking. 