$13 Million a week
Fort Bliss' $4.4 billion expansion on schedule
By Stephen Baack |
If you haven't taken a drive along Loop 375 where it borders Biggs Army Airfield lately, you may be surprised at what you'll see.
To the west, there are the first stages of more than $4 billion in new construction at Fort Bliss, sprawling across the desert to the north.
That averages out to $13 million in construction a week, every week, until the year 2014 for Fort Bliss.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and construction contractors are building complexes for seven brigade combat teams, or BCTs. The first complex should be ready this September, according to corps officials.
“The El Paso workforce of contractors, subcontractors and suppliers is meeting the challenge and working toward this Fort Bliss expansion on schedule,” said Troy Collins, P.E., the corps’ Fort Bliss program director.
The completion of the first complex is one part of the major expansion the post will see over the next six years.
In 2005, changes in Base Realignment and Closure created the Fort Bliss Expansion Program. While a number of U.S. military installations across the globe were closed or cut back, Fort Bliss welcomed new units and took on new missions.
Through a combination of military construction money and BRAC funding, Corps of Engineer contractors will build $4.4 billion in construction projects between 2005 to 2014 – or, an average of about $13 million every week, Collins said.
Add in White Sands Missile Range, and the total planned expansion amounts to $5.5 billion.
Troop influx
With the Pentagon’s help, city officials have determined that more than 37,000 soldiers will be assigned to Fort Bliss by 2012. That’s an increase of nearly 28,000 soldiers, and that’s not counting tens of thousands of Army spouses and children who will come with them.
Mathew McElroy, the city’s military growth and expansion coordinator, has been on top of these anticipated changes – and their effects – since April. He works with the city officials to anticipate the needs of Fort Bliss growth.
Luckily, McElroy said, the biggest issues – building the desalination plant and Spur 601 near Fort Bliss – were addressed before he took the job. Now he’s dealing with major issues like school capacity, housing and healthcare. He also works with REDCo, El Paso’s Regional Economic Development Corp., to leverage the estimated $3.3 billion economic impact of the troop influx and create new industries and higher-wage jobs.
“That’s a lot of money, but it’s only a lot if you have it in the right industries,” McElroy told El Paso Inc. last month. “You don’t want $3.3 billion in dog food processing, for example.
“The question is how can you take that impact and leverage it in terms of other areas so you can build what you want, whether it’s through recruiting defense contractors, or because you build hospitals and you have more doctors,” he added.
Army of the future
As far as REDCo President Bob Cook is concerned, the transformation of Fort Bliss will help transform El Paso.
Cook briefed top Pentagon officials before BRAC decisions were made, essentially asking for the post’s expansion.
Cook said two units that will help determine the Army’s future are critical to El Paso’s future: the Future Force Integration Directorate and the Army Evaluation Task Force. The units’ 1,300 soldiers and civilians develop and test technologies for the future.
“That’s what’s driven a lot of this high-tech interest in El Paso,” Cook said. “They’re out on McGregor Range, training on these new, futuristic technologies. It’s really high-tech stuff that’s going on here. I think if we do our job well as a community supporting this transformation, five years from now we should have several thousand new high-tech jobs in the community that are supporting these transformational initiatives.”
BCTs
The continuing change at Fort Bliss may be most evident while driving through Biggs Army Airfield – going from the groupings of temporary barracks once known as Long Knife Village to the freshly built barracks of BCT 1 and BCT 2.
A brigade combat team is the modern Army’s name for a modular, self-sustaining, deployable unit. They range in size from 2,500 to nearly 5,000 soldiers in size, depending on structure.
Collins said even though it will be months before the first BCT is ready, the first battalion for that first BCT should be finished by the end of the month. Soldiers are also set to move into one of the already-completed barracks buildings this week.
So far, contractors have put between $500 million and $600 million in the ground, Collins said.
The construction of barracks – a sizeable portion of each BCT – runs counter to traditional, from-the-ground-up building methods. A major portion of each barracks building begins its life in the warehouse and is constructed modularly, which is meant to fast-forward the construction process.
One barracks building costs $7 million, houses 128 soldiers and has a lifespan of 25 years without major renovation, according to the Corps of Engineers.
The group of seven planned BCT complexes consists of four heavy brigade combat teams, two infantry brigade combat teams and one combat aviation brigade.
Each complex includes barracks, company operations facilities, equipment shops, storage facilities and other support buildings. The combat aviation brigade, or CAB, includes all that, plus hangars.
In March, the corps released a report on the scope of construction: 300 buildings covering 3,100 acres with 10 million-square-feet of living and work space.
“In order to make room for the first two complexes, two million cubic yards of dirt on 635 acres had to be removed,” the report said. “One BCT is about 300 acres and is approximately 1 mile by a half mile, which is close in size to the Washington Mall at 309 acres.”
BRAC winner
One post official thinks the Pentagon made a good choice in making Fort Bliss a BRAC winner.
“For the Army, it just recognizes the value of this post on so many different levels,” said Col. Edward Manning, Fort Bliss garrison commander.
“They probably said, ‘Hey. Look. They’ve got a staff in place who knows what they’re doing and they’ve got a place that’s the size of Rhode Island.’ And when you add White Sands, which we’re right up against, it’s the size of Connecticut,” Manning said.
And it doesn’t hurt that the area resembles Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We can fire any weapon system in the Army in the White Sands, Fort Bliss and McGregor Range Complex areas,” Manning said. “Why not put them there, let them train and get ready to go to war? It makes sense.”
Comments or questions about this story? E-mail news@elpasoinc.com
|
|
