A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/565556
website or anywhere else? Give us a call or send us an email. We'll respond right away. If we don ' t know the answer, we' ll work to help find it for you quickly. Director of Communications Doug Church : dchurch@natcadc.org ; 301 - 346 - 8245 Associate Director of Communications, Art & Design Laura Roose: lroose@natcadc.org ; 202 - 220 - 9814 Senior Communications and Public Affairs Associate Sarah McCann : smccann@natcadc.org ; 202 - 220 - 9813 Multimedia Specialist Jordan Thielker : jthielker@natcadc.org ; 202 - 266 - 9875 Communications Specialist Sarah Zilonis : szilonis@natcadc.org ; 202 - 266 - 9844 . WEEKLY MESSAGE FROM ATO COO TERI L. BRISTOL Sustaining NAS Infrastructure Hi everyone. As we continue to add new capabilities through NextGen, it's just as important that we sustain vital parts of our existing infr astructure. We have about 28,000 facilities and about 39,000 systems throughout the national airspace system, much of which is decades old. Of course, we fix things that break. But what about things that work fine today, but maybe not tomorrow? In toda y's very tough budget climate, we have to make smart decisions about what to replace or repair, and when to do it. Through our Facilities Infrastructure Portfolio, we're prioritizing sustainment projects that will mitigate risk to employee safety, NAS oper ations, and the environment. For instance, if a potential employee safety hazard has been documented at a facility during an annual work inspection, it will be higher up on our list. We're also prioritizing sustainment activities for facilities and syste ms that handle or impact a greater number of NAS operations. In addition to these prioritization efforts, we're also addressing the following critical systemic issues that affect employee safety: completing fire life safety upgrades at FAA - owned or operated single - egress air traffic control towers, conducting risk assessments to identify proper procedures and personal protective equipment to protect employees from arc flash, installing fall protection for employees including replacing ladders or ladd er safety systems, and rooftop guard rails and anchor points; and replacing critical NAS operations infrastructure equipment that has extended past its service life such as en route center chillers, fuel storage tanks, engine generators, and underground po wer cables and guyed tower cables. This year, we've completed or started many of these projects. We replaced chillers at five en route centers including Dallas, New York, Memphis, Chicago and San Juan. Chillers for Houston and Boston centers are in the c onstruction phase, with Oakland, Leesburg, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles in the design phase. Also, this year we completed fire life safety upgrades at 11 control towers, replaced 29 engine generators at facilities throughout the country, and replaced la dders and ladder safety systems at 13 locations, including the Glide Slope towers at Los Angeles (LAX) and Torrance (TOA), California airports. We are using new tools and procedures to make smarter investments. Our new Capital Program Integration (CPI) bu siness management process will result in a key