|
When the Army's Fourth Infantry Division comes marching home from Iraq to Fort Hood, it will be to new quarters and work spaces. Hensel Phelps Construction Co. is delivering a $97 million design-build project at the base in Killeen, the largest active-duty armored post in the United States.
The $97 million design-build project at Fort Hood includes the installation of 152 modular buildings for barracks and operations and administrative use.
Photo courtesy Hensel Phelps Construction Co. |
Started in November 2004 and scheduled for completion in May 2007, the project includes the installation of 152 modular buildings for barracks and operations and administrative use, nine modular tent-like vehicle maintenance and storage structures and five open-wall metal buildings. Work also includes renovation of the first floors of 37 barracks buildings and constructing a new 4,500-sq.-ft. classroom structure.
Preparation work was performed at 27 separate sites across 7 mi. within the base. It also included 231,500 sq. yds. of asphalt paving, pouring 2,600 cu. yds. of concrete for slabs and $8.3 million worth of new utilities for the modular and permanent buildings.
The bywords on the project are "fast track" and "coordination."
"We were supposed to be done ahead of schedule, but the Fourth Infantry Division didn't deploy to Iraq when they were supposed to," said Guy Mills, project superintendent for Hensel Phelps.
Don Young, vice president of Carter & Burgess, the architect and structural engineer on the job, said the biggest driver has been that troops are scheduled to come in at the end of March.
"When the contract was awarded to the design-build team last November, we were already way behind the curve as far as meeting that requirement," he added. "We had to create a streamlined process based on how the Corps of Engineers deals with design and building."
To facilitate rapid review and approval of plans, Carter & Burgess installed a design team in a job trailer onsite at Fort Hood. Turnarounds on plans that normally would take up to a month were completed in two days.
Site preparation and installation of utilities for the modular structures was an initial priority. "The first deliveries of the modular buildings was at the beginning of February, so from November to early February we had to have the first sites ready," Young said.
Three Texas firms manufactured the 243,350 sq. ft. of prefabricated metal structures. Nortex Modular Space of Lewisville designed and manufactured three administration buildings; Ramtech Building Systems of Mansfield provided 88 barracks, two laundry buildings and one dayroom facility; and Comark Building Systems of DeSoto delivered 21 buildings for company operations, 21 for operations supply and 16 battalion headquarters.
The companies were able to deliver orders in a quick six weeks.
"We refined the scope from what was in the requests for proposals for those modular buildings," Young said. "And we haven't done a lot of manufactured buildings for construction. They aren't necessarily architectural trophies, but the intent was to provide functionality for the soldiers."
The modular buildings had to be manufactured in sections that fit onto tractor-trailers for transport. "Coordinating the arrival of the units was a big factor," Mills said. "Every unit had to come in the west gate entrance to Fort Hood gate and be X-rayed."
All asphalt deliveries were also X-rayed, and a concrete plant was set up on base.
Tight budget considerations led to using modular aluminum -frame buildings covered by a polyurethane membrane manufactured by Sprung Structures of Houston for nine vehicle maintenance and storage facilities totaling 38,250 sq. ft. They were installed on and attached to concrete pads.
Five new steel-frame vehicle maintenance buildings were also installed on concrete pads. Totaling 32,500 sq. ft., they have standing-seam metal roofs and partial metal wall panels. Each houses a 7.5-ton crane.
The single permanent structure is a 4,500-sq.-ft. steel-frame classroom building with a brick veneer and standing-seam metal roof.
Building teams worked long hours to finish installation of all of the buildings by September while contending with statutory and regulatory strictures in project funding and spending.
"When the goal is to provide facilities for these soldiers that are out fighting in austere places, you're pretty motivated to help," Young said.
While not necessarily architectural trophies, the modular buildings provide functionality for the soldiers.
Photo courtesy Hensel Phelps. |
The renovation of spaces from 5,000 to 15,000 sq. ft. in 37 existing buildings required flexibility to work around the shifting deployment and return of troops.
"We had change orders requesting sites to be finished early to accommodate wounded soldiers returning from Iraq," said Hensel Phelps project engineer Melissa Marwitz.
"When you're on this team, you learn not to be surprised. They can say they want this building two months earlier and shove that one back a couple of months and cut half of this one and add it back over here.
"One of the hardest things to overcome was working with structures that were built in the 1960s and 1970s and bring them up to code."
Many of the buildings required substantial asbestos abatement.
The majority of the renovations were on the ground floor of multistory barracks structures, removing kitchens and dining facilities and replacing them primarily with offices and administrative spaces. "Some of these buildings were still occupied when we were working on the bottom floors," Marwitz said.
Click here for more Features >>
|
print this page
e-mail this page
