Federal funding furthers Hanscom construction projects

  • Published
  • By Capt. Geoff Buteau
  • 66th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  Nearly two years after Hanscom received $12.8 million in federal funding to build a replacement for building 1600, that military construction program is now 35-percent complete, while additional funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is helping to complete paving, roofing, steam-system and infrastructure repairs around Hanscom. 

Even though the two construction projects - the most visible improvement efforts on Hanscom in recent months - are coming from different pots of federal government money, both are designed to solve the increasingly apparent aging infrastructure issues, such as leaking roofs and energy inefficient steam distribution systems because of corroded pipes, according to Chris Perkins, base civil engineer, and Joan Croteau, acting deputy base civil engineer. 

Construct Acquisition Management Facility (New-Building 1604) 

The construction of building 1604, located on the southeast corner of Barksdale and Eglin Streets, is actually the replacement for building 1600, despite the different building number. For records-keeping purposes, identical building numbers can't be used for new buildings. So now commonly referred to as New B-1604 - short for "New Building 1604," the 70,000 square-foot undertaking is being done in two phases, Mr. Perkins said. 

The construction happening now, and scheduled for completion in the summer of 2010, is all Phase I. It's this 40,000 square foot phase that's 35-percent complete. 

It was necessary to phase the project because the entire estimated cost of NewB-1604 was more than $20 million and congress prefers to fund in manageable chunks closer to $10 million, Mr. Perkins said. Since the phasing makes it impossible to seamlessly vacate one building and occupy the other, building 1600 will remain in use after Phase I of NewB-1604 is complete and occupied. 

"Phase II is completely dependent on funding," Mr. Perkins said. Estimated at $10 million for an additional 30,000 square feet to NewB-1604, the earliest work can begin would be 2012. 

Congress, specifically both the Senate and House Armed Service and Appropriations Committees, would have to approve what's called a congressional insert, which funds a project in an earlier year than originally scheduled. In fact, this is how Phase I was approved. 

"The problem is," Mr. Perkins said, "that happens during July and Phase II didn't get any marks this year before the August recess." He said the earliest it could be inserted would be next July, and in that case, approval in 2012 and construction in 2013. In the meantime, the corridors that are designed to connect Phase I with Phase II will just be an opening with a dead end at the completion of Phase I. 

Looking further ahead, if Phase II is approved, then completed, building 1600 is scheduled to be torn down and the resulting space turned into a parking lot, alleviating the issue of limited parking in the area, Mr. Perkins said. 

ARRA funds paving, roofing, other repairs 

The ARRA funded 41 different paving, roofing and steam and condensation system projects underway now at Hanscom that are scheduled for completion at the end of November. 

"One thing we're saying is that we're not at the end of it," Ms. Croteau said about the current projects. She hopes to add an additional 10 to 12 projects with the money left over when some of the bids for the original 41 projects came in under budget. "We're going through another process right now for an additional $5.6 million." 

The original process Ms. Croteau and her civil engineering teams hope to repeat is one that started with Air Force Materiel Command. From the ARRA, Ms. Croteau said AFMC received approximately $261million, "and they in turn worked with each base to get a list of projects out of the database." 

This database was essentially a queue of projects already on the books, or in other words, projects that were already officially declared as necessary before any of the federal funding became knowingly available. 

Paving projects have been highly noticeable on base lately, and it's because paving had been on the project queue while other priorities moved ahead of it. "It's because there's really only a single source of funding for all of the roofing, paving, and HVAC repair," Ms. Croteau said, "The lack of paving isn't hurting the people as much as the HVAC problems and roof leaks, so the little funds we got were going toward those things." 

Moving forward with paving projects now has not only cut off about five years from their anticipated completion dates, but it also adds jobs, Ms. Croteau said. These paving, roofing, and steam line repair projects created 55 jobs so far. 

Every agency receiving stimulus money is required to track results on a government Web site, and while not a requirement to receive the aid, Hanscom is undoubtedly creating work for the local civilian population and helping the economy, Mr. Perkins said.