WHY THIS 3rd RUNWAY ?
CHAPTER 15 - FIRST STONES OF THE NEW CONTROL TOWER AND SOUTH TERMINAL
15) The ‘Fomento’ Minister (Francisco Álvarez-Cascos) (PP) greatly enjoyed laying down the first stones and did not have enough with the laying down of the first stone of the airport’s third runway , which took place in chaos October 10th, 2002.
Almost one year later, in September 3rd, 2003, the Minister visited El Prat airport in order to lay down the first stone of the new control tower 
nd only three months later (in December 18th, 2003) he would come back again to lay down the first stone of the new south terminal
A) First stone of the new control tower
B) First stone of the new south terminal
C) Images of the new south terminal building
A) FIRST STONE OF THE NEW CONTROL TOWER
The Minister attended the act together with the Territory Politics Minister of the Catalan Government (Felip Puig) (CiU).
The new control tower will be 63 m high in total (16 more meters than the current one), will duplicate the space available compared to the current one and will cost around 14,36 million euros.
The architect Bruce Fairbanks designed the tower.
Images of the new control tower under construction, its design and the finished tower.
New control tower under construction
New control tower already finished
An interesting piece of information is that the new control tower was meant to come into service at the beginning of 2005, shortly after the third runway came into operation, but mysteriously it did not. However, there were rumors going around the airport that the new control tower was sinking because the land on which it was built could not withstand its weight.
In March 2006, more than a year after the date it was supposed to come into service, the tower was not yet operational and new problems came up: the controller unions complained about the poor visibility of this new tower caused by the metal joints that supported the heavy windows. These joints were too thick and left some spots at the head and end of the runway without visibility.
In order to solve this problem, AENA decided to build a new auxiliary control tower on the former grounds of the Reial Club de Golf del Prat.
Curiously enough, something similar happened when the current tower was built (for the 1992 Olympic Games) and the windows needed to be modified.
The controller unions' conclusion was that AENA does not learn from past mistakes.
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On July 2006, the 'Fomento' Minister (Magdalena Álvarez) (PSOE) visited El Prat airport and asserted that the new control tower would come into service at the end of 2006. She ascribed the delay to the priority of the BY-PASS works |
On February 3rd, 2007, the new control tower of El Prat airport finally came into service with a 2-year delay.
- Press release - The new control tower comes into service (February 3rd, 2007)
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B) FIRST STONE OF THE NEW SOUTH TERMINAL
During the laying down of the first stone of the new south terminal, the 'Fomento' Minister (Francisco Álvarez-Cascos) (PP) used the opportunity to detail the investment being done in El Prat airport within the ‘Pla Barcelona’, and stated that the works carried out since 1996 amounted to 513.6 million euros while the works being done at the moment amounted to 1,240.2 million euros.
There are works still pending to reach the total investment planned: 2,298 million euros
As a part of this investment, the new south terminal will cost about 602 million euros.
HERE all the information about the new south terminal design.
C) IMAGES OF THE NEW SOUTH TERMINAL BUILDING
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| April 2007 | |||||||||||
| Panoramic image of the new south terminal –Gavà Mar is at the end, on the left | Photograph: AENA | ||||||||||
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| July 2007 | |||||||||||
| Aerial image of the works at the new south terminal of El Prat airport | Photograph: AENA | ||||||||||
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| September 2007 | |||||||||||
| Aerial images of the works at the new south terminal of El Prat airport | Photographs: AENA | ||||||||||
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| January 2008 | |||||||||||
| Images of the works at the new south terminal of El Prat airport | Photographs: AENA | ||||||||||
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| April 2008 | |||||||||||
| Images of the works at the new south terminal of El Prat airport | Photographs: AENA | ||||||||||
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| August 2008 | |||||||||||
| Instalación de los 43 fingers (ampliables a 50) de la nueva terminal sur del Prat | Photographs: AENA | ||||||||||
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| February 2009 | |||||||||||
| Imágenes de las obras de la nueva terminal T1 del aeropuerto del Prat y de sus accesos | Photographs: AENA | ||||||||||
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