New-to-build CPK Airport announces a tender for the design of Poland’s tallest air traffic control tower

CPK, the new-to-build airport in Poland, is waiting until 6 June for bids in the procedure for the air traffic control tower design. It is going to be the tallest building of its kind in the country. Along with the terminal, this could also be one of the most iconic buildings of the new airport.

The master plan for the CPK airport envisages that the Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) will be a high-rise building, with the controllers’ operations room assumed to be 90 metres above the apron. According to the design assumptions, the maximum height of the building cannot exceed 105 metres. The precise height of the building is going to be determined by visibility analyses, which should be carried out during the initial design stage.

According to the assumed schedule, preliminary visualisations of the air traffic control tower should be presented by the designer in Q1 2024.

“Taking into account the assumptions of the CPK master plan, as well as the experience of our partner, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency, whose controllers will ensure air traffic safety from the new facility, we can already say that it will be the tallest and most modern tower of its kind in Poland. The design is to be developed in close cooperation with the airport’s master architect, Foster + Partners, which should guarantee architectural coherence with the terminal,” says Eliza Wysocka of the Design and Engineering Office of the CPK airport programme.

The tender procedure is addressed to 9 companies and 4 design consortia with whom CPK signed a framework agreement for the design of the airport’s Support Infrastructure Engineering (SIE) facilities at the end of 2022. As part of this contract, the following is going to be designed in addition to the traffic control tower in the immediate vicinity of the terminal: the airport operations centre, the rescue and firefighting services buildings, the airport maintenance and management building and the airport services offices.

The company selected in the tender procedure should prepare the design of the tower, including its concept, and obtain the necessary building permits. The scope of the contract is also to include other design-related services, e.g. consultancy during construction works procurement procedures.

So far, the tallest building of this type in Poland is the 46-metre tower at Katowice Airport in Pyrzowice, commissioned in 2019. The tower at Krakow’s Balice Airport is slightly less, at around 45 metres. The tallest air traffic control tower in the world is the 136-metre-high structure at Jeddah Airport in Saudi Arabia.