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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- A radar-like system is on the map for Provo's city airport.
Mayor Lewis Billings and the Federal Aviation Authority agreed to a deal to fund the system, which will allow the control tower to track planes flying as high as 9,000 feet.
The system is technically not radar and is called a "Beacon Interrogator-6," which is less expensive. It still comes with a $4 million price tag. The agreement calls for state and local government to foot half the bill and the rest to come from the FAA.
City officials say it's an affordable way to get the kind of system the airport needs. Transponders on the planes are able to communicate with the tower below the 9,000 foot ceiling. Salt Lake City radar can't track planes coming into Provo because signals are blocked by the Point of the Mountain.
City representatives had to travel to Washington, D.C., to convince the FAA, which has been experimenting with new systems that may replace them in a few years.
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Information from: The Daily Herald
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
