Engineers prepare to break ground for BRAC

  • Published
  • By Randy Brown
  • 88th Air Base Wing Civil Engineering
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  The $330 million facility construction effort required to bring multiple missions to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure is under way. 

On Sept. 26, 2007, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract for the first step - a fiscal year 2007 facilities infrastructure upgrade project to the Butt Construction Company. 

Scheduled to progress over the next year, the project will provide the utilities and roadways to support the construction of a major facility in Area B designed to house the future 711th Human Performance Wing. 

In early March, the contractor will break ground, excavating for a new detention basin southeast of Building 745. The excavated dirt from this basin will be used to regrade the area for a new Gate 19B, which will be located south of the existing gate on National Road, at the intersection with Reese Road. 

The new gate is expected to begin operation this fall. Work crews will reconnect the current jogging path in the area to form a shorter loop. 

By April, the contractor will dig a network of trenches across the site to supply new water, steam, electric and communication lines, and storm and sanitary sewer pipes to support the approximately 700,000 square-foot 711th HPW complex. 

Prior to this work, the Airman Leadership School will relocate to Building 50A, allowing for the demolition of Building 430 to make way for the new utilities and future 711th HPW facilities. 

Base Civil Engineering officials advise patience as future periodic utility outages and road closures occur to enable the construction to progress and the BRAC-related transitions to succeed. 

Civil Engineering will use the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base public Web page and Skywrighter newspaper to keep the base workforce informed of BRAC-related construction activity in an effort to minimize disruptions.