---

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has begun preliminary planning for a new $26 million air traffic control tower at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport in the US.

---

The new 228 feet tall tower would replace the existing 30-year-old existing tower, and would be 100 feet higher than the current one. Located near Concourse C, the tower would feature a new generation of electronic monitoring equipment with a platform for viewing airport activity.

FAA is currently scouting for potential tower sites, which is expected to take at least six more months. The project would then move to the design and budgeting phase.

FAA, however, needs to accommodate the new tower plans among the expansion plans of the airport to open its $100 million terminal in summer and long-term plans to upgrade Concourse D and attract more international traffic to Concourse E.