‘Better, Faster, Cheaper, Green’
BRAC, Iraq and fresh approach cause military construction to boom along Southern Front Range

Base closures and realignments, plus new Corps’ construction requirements, are keeping military contractors busy.

By Dan T. DeCristoforo

The military’s ongoing Base Realignment and Closure program and a fresh approach to the procurement of new buildings has opened up opportunities galore for Front Range architects, engineers and builders.

The BRAC program and the continuing rotation of units in and out Iraq are driving the demand for quality buildings delivered within 15 months, including design, commissioning and turnover to the owner. Designs must be sustainable and qualify for LEED certification.

A Fresh Approach 

Vince Turner, project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, likens the new approach to construction management-at-risk. The design-build team constructs the building or facility to Corps specifications for a guaranteed maximum price. In this two-step process, the Corps then qualifies three contractors who prepare and submit designs detailing how much building they can provide for the specified price.

“The Army Transformation Model RFP basically demands better, faster, cheaper, green,” says Florin Walicki of RNL Design, the architects working on the Brigade and Battalion Headquarters at Fort Carson. “In the past, projects were often 30% of the way through design before being issued to the AE and contractor teams.”

Walicki compares the new system to a turn-key arrangement, which puts the AE at liberty to design the entire facility rather than being compelled to finish someone else’s work.

“The [Model RFP] produces greater collaboration and shorter turnaround times for mission critical facilities,” Walicki says. “Comprehensive designs include site utilities, the shell and exterior design, engineering, internal systems and furniture packages.”

Base Realignments 

Fort Carson is expected to grow by 10,000 troops by the time the BRAC program concludes. Part of a $300-million facility, the 144,000-sq-ft Brigade and Battalion Headquarters broke ground in mid-December and is expected to be ready for occupancy in March 2008.

The $31.2-million BBHQ building—plus barracks, company operations facilities, tactical equipment maintenance facilities and tactical equipment motor pools—will house the 4th Infantry Division. Six COFs and barracks will house 1,460 personnel.

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“Additionally, PCL was recently awarded a CM-at-risk contract for a large division headquarters [and command center] priced at $40 million.”

The Brigade and Battalion Headquarters is a steel frame structure erected on drilled piers and great beams. Two- and three-story buildings are oriented to form an “A” shape, with a connecting glass atrium and exterior courtyard where troops can break from classes without disrupting operations elsewhere in the building.

“The building houses specialized areas for secure compartmentalized information systems, classrooms, office space for seven large battalions, one medium battalion, and brigade personnel—about 550 people in all,” Walicki says.

Exterior finishes feature precast panels with brick veneer and insulated metal panels. All systems comply with the Department of Defense anti-terrorism and force protection requirements, which include specialized glazing, progressive-collapse prevention systems and site design that minimizes the threat from terrorist attacks to individuals working in the building.

“Staggered start dates four to six weeks apart are planned for the barracks, COF, TEMF and TEMP (a motor pool for repairing tanks and other heavy vehicles) facilities,” Walicki says. “We are bidding on the TEMP facility.”

Evolving Requirements

 “The secure communications aspect was quite a challenge,” says David Grigsby of Hensel Phelps Construction Co. “It was tough to interpret the Corps’ requirements, which kept evolving as we went along. Actual battle planning here and many spaces require top-secret clearances.”

The battle planning function is relatively new to this sort of headquarters and the only analog the design-team could find was actual battlefield conditions.

“The Corps’ documentation only got us part way to a design solution,” Grigsby says. “To fill in the gaps, we met with soldiers just returned from Iraq, who helped us determine the optimal configuration for the space.”

Construction is under way now on the new Company Operations Facility. M.A. Mortenson with Leo A. Daly of Minneapolis and PBS&J of Colorado Springs won the $57.3-million design-build contract. Ground was broken in January; completion is expected in May 2008.

The 400,000-sq-ft, six-building, LEED-silver-designed complex will provide space for 3,800 soldiers to work in each day. Buildings will include readiness areas constructed with precast concrete and administrative areas built with structural steel, metal studs and brick. Because of expansive soil conditions, all floors will be concrete slab-on-void form. All exterior walls and window systems will also be constructed to meet current (AT/FP) requirements.

The Brigade and Battalion Headquarters building will serve as the national prototype for this type of facility.

“It’s state-of-the-art design and economical to operate,” says Grigsby. “The building is 30% more efficient than your standard building.”

Standardization of procurement procedures, building design and adoption of industry standards will allow the military construction sector to get far more bang for its buck.

“Nationally, milcon has a $2-billion budget for 2007,” says Turner. “Under Army Transformation, that might buy 1,200 buildings as opposed to 1,000 buildings with more traditional approaches.

“We did our first design-build in 1997 at Peterson AFB,” he adds. “Design-build is not new to us. But writing a more prescriptive and performance-based RFP is quite new.”

Swinerton Builders completed the NorCom Bed Down Addition to the former North American Radar Defense HQ at Peterson AFB in January 2006. The NorCom, which houses the Army’s Northern Command and Homeland Security headquarters and operated on a 24-hour basis, broke ground in October 2003.

Encompassing 130,000 sq ft, the $35-million-plus NorCom nerve center has two floors and a basement for the SCIFs. The high-tech facility includes an atrium with glass curtainwall and full-length peaked skylight. An underground parking garage measures 7,700 sq ft. A finish of silver metal panels and roughened concrete wainscoting creates the perception of a building hovering above the ground.

Anti-terrorist force-protection barriers surrounding the 20-acre campus use native boulders adjacent to walkways and heavy cables threaded through 10-ft, heavily reinforced, concrete bollards.

“It’s a substantial barrier,” says Swinerton’s Dan Seier, “but a natural and aesthetically pleasing one. Some blast-proof walls are two-ft thick. Because communications equipment packs many of the spaces, sophisticated base-wide climate controls monitor and set temperatures and energy use room-by-room.”

Other Military Projects

Torix General Contractors of Colorado Springs completed the Operational Readiness Center Training Complex Barracks and the Rolling Pins Barracks renovation at Fort Carson in 2006.

Photo courtesy of Torix General Contractors

“The $78.2-million Rolling Pins renovation saved 14 existing barracks measuring a total of 647,000 sq ft,” says Torix’s Matt Purcell. “Cool thing was we completed 14 buildings in 14 months.”

Steel frames were erected to cover ‘60s-era, three-story buildings boasting bullet-proof, 9.5-in. walls. Interiors were gutted and redesigned in accordance with the Army’s new “One-Plus-One” standard in which two soldiers share a two-bedroom suite with a kitchenette and common bathroom. Mechanical and electrical are distributed by easy access “utilidors” installed down the center of each building.

“The ORTC barracks are more traditionally designed with open bays to handle two-week troop rotations,” says Purcell. “They are meant for hard use with little or no maintenance. The complex is somewhat isolated on an exposed mesa, where we battled lightning, gale-force winds, plague-ridden prairie dogs, and rabbits with tularemia. “Our focus was continually on worker safety,” he says. “We even had to realign an existing tank trail.”

The $21.7-million ORTC barracks are the first of a planned 80-building complex that will support Fort Carson’s training mission for all active duty Army, Reserve and National Guard personnel stationed west of the Mississippi River.

Other projects under way along the southern Front Range include the Arrival Departure Airfield Control Group facilities at Colorado Springs Airport, designed to support troops deploying from Fort Carson. Phase I, already completed, includes a parking apron for six C-5 transports and a taxiway.

Proposals are being accepted for support buildings and two large pads for loading ammunition. Cost for the entire project is more than $50 million.

Peterson AFB is also scheduled to get a new West Gate, which serves as its main entrance.

“The project features a new visitors’ center, two-lane bridge across Sand Creek, gate house and the latest Department of Defense anti-terrorism and force protection installations,” says Jon DeLay, project manager for Merrick & Co.

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