Proud to Serve

Fort Worth District of USACE Named ‘Top Owner’

This year, with a lion’s share of responsibility for a plethora of assignments, the Fort Worth District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proven its ability to rise above and beyond to get huge jobs done, on time and with more guts than glory.

By Christine Cox

The unassailable organization of the many faceted U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shines this year in the Fort Worth District created in 1950, where in excess of $7 billion has been allocated into 2014 to re-structure flood systems and expand river capabilities, build military facilities that include composite medical structures and construct new brigades and barracks that create mini-cities. The projects on the Corps’ slate will reach into and beyond 2020, with some slated for completion as early as 2010. Others are reaching their peak. The common thread in these ambitious assignments has been the notable coordination among government and non-government agencies, nonprofit entities and private sector contractors along with the support that each Corps division lends to the other.

It is with that spirit in mind that we announce for the first time, Texas Construction’s “Owner of the Year.” On this inaugural occasion, McGraw-Hill Construction’s Regional Construction Publications editors have given the title to the Fort Worth District of the USACE.

The Corps’ multifarious, 900-member workforce, a division of the Department of Defense, includes biologists, engineers, geologists, hydrologists, natural resource managers and other highly trained and qualified professionals. It is built around a system to meet the demands of an expanding world with extraordinary challenges and needs, while local communities take on the needs of fast-growing populations with intricate engineering demands. The Fort Worth District oversees a 410,000-sq-mi territory.

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Joint Program Management Office and Base Realignment and Closure

In order to collaborate and coordinate efforts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment along with the U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command and private-sector contractors, a Joint Program Management Office was formed in 2005. By all accounts, the collaboration was a wise one, as it facilitates a much-needed coordinated network so complex projects can be streamlined. The JPMO is a fully chartered, tri-service office originated to coordinate the massive Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, process in San Antonio, in cooperation with the DOD and headed by the Army Corps of Engineers. “Working with that office has been outstanding,” says Peter Holland, executive vice president for Satterfield and Pontikes of Houston. The company has about $150 million worth of BRAC-related projects in the pike. “The experience we’ve had with the Fort Worth District has been enjoyable,” Holland says. He cites the district’s openness to “input about how to get complex jobs done efficiently, working on short timelines.” Many of the people on the S&P team have worked with the Army Corps in the past on other projects, “but the BRAC program” says Holland, “has been exceptional.”

A rendering shows planned additions/expansion to Brooke Army Medical Center, including a multi-story tower addition to the existing hospital (middle); a 5,000-space parking garage (lower left); courtesy of USACE.

The BRAC military installations process in San Antonio, lead by the Fort Worth District, includes Fort Sam Houston, Camp Bullis, Lackland Air Force Base and Randolph Air Force Base. Randy Holman, program manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, says 78 major facilities are under construction or will be, and must reach completion by September 2011. “This is a fast-moving, complex and dynamic program,” Holman says. It encompasses a $2-billion total budget allocated over five years, and will include expansion of the San Antonio Military Medical Center and Brooke Army Medical Center to absorb military inpatient care and related specialty care services currently provided at San Antonio’s Wilford Hall Medical Center. It includes the construction of a Medical Education and Training Campus, a 1.9-million-sq-ft facility that will accommodate 9,000 students.

About two dozen Fort Sam Houston historic structures – some of which are nearly a century old – are being refurbished to prepare for the BRAC-related administrative shift.

BRAC-related construction activity at Camp Bullis involves facilities needed for field training unit relocations. A 201,000-sq-ft Armed Forces Reserve Center is being built to provide permanent facilities for 23 Army Reserve units and four Texas Army National Guard units, and an additional 63,000-sq-ft field training complex will accommodate METC students.

At Lackland, a 40,000-sq-ft Intelligence Operations Center will be built.

Holman says that the willingness of contractors to work as a team has made it possible to “hit all the marks.” The tri-chair organization hosts matchmaking fairs, in which the group is able to story board to the community about BRAC’s program status. “We lay out our ’forward vision,’” Holman says. “This is valuable to the community because we can get the message out about how to connect to the program in one-on-one conversations.”

The majority of construction and renovation work is on Fort Sam Houston, which is at present an operating facility. The peak of construction is expected to happen by mid-year, and estimates of peak employment numbers is about 2,200 workers. “BRAC is over, above and on top of military construction in the U.S.,” Holman says. Historically military construction per year in San Antonio has averaged $65-$100 million, he adds. “With BRAC, in one year alone we are allocating $1.2 billion in contracts – a tenfold increase.”

The city estimates that the economic impact for San Antonio will reach almost $6 billion.

Fort Bliss, El Paso

Fort Bliss, the second largest army post in the U.S., is undergoing a massive $4.6-billion expansion program that includes 90 projects, involving 300 buildings.

Jacobs Engineering and Huitt-Zollars is leading the joint venture team providing site development, design and integration, utilities and road networking at at El Paso’s Fort Bliss. Image courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Steve Wright, program manager for the Fort Bliss expansion program, says that seven new brigades are expected by 2011, and one more by 2014. “The brigade headquarters will go from accommodating 9,000 soldiers and their families to 40,000. “This is like building a small city,” Wright says. He says the work will help boost the struggling El Paso economy. “We began in 2007 by moving several military units from overseas back onto U.S. soil,” he says. The 500-acre post grew to 3,500 acres. The “small city” will include offices, chapels, child development centers and a facility providing rehabilitation and housing for injured soldiers. The joint venture firm of Jacobs Engineering and Huitt-Zollars is part of the team providing site development, design and integration, utilities and road networking, Wright says. “But it cannot be left unsaid that this has been a huge, collaborative effort with five Army Corps districts including not just Fort Worth, though we are leading the effort, but Little Rock, Tulsa, Albuquerque and Sacramento,” he says. The project is the largest military base expansion under way in the U.S. Approximately $20 million is spent on the project each week.

Trinity River Project Central City, Fort Worth

The Central City Project along the West Fork and Clear Fork of the Trinity River in Fort Worth combines efforts and funds from five governmental and non-profit agencies including the USACE Fort Worth District, the City of Fort Worth, Tarrant Regional Water District, Tarrant County and Streams and Valleys. Mike Oleson, project manager with CDM of Cambridge, Mass., has been under contract with the Fort Worth District Central City Project since 2006, working closely with the Corps on the project that runs through the middle of downtown Fort Worth. “Our corporate mission is aligned with the Corps’ mission and with the project’s vision,” Oleson says. CDM is providing hydraulic engineering support, civil, structural, and architectural design services “The collaborative team approach on this huge project has really been informed within the technical disciplines,” he says.

J.D. Granger, executive director of the Trinity Vision River Authority, says the nearly $600-million project was conceptualized in 2000 with a real plan in place by 2003. “It will create the largest set of urban parks in the nation, including more than 1,000 acres allocated for outdoor recreation.” In addition, the creation of an 800-acre, 12-mi downtown waterfront will integrate the Trinity River into the cityscape.

Saji Alummuttil, economic development coordinator with the Fort Worth District, says the army Corps’ allocation is $110 million and will include, among other things, relocation of a dam, building isolation gates and creating valley storage sites.

Oleson says building a 300-ft-wide bypass channel will dramatically enhance the quality of life along the waterfront that will include urban lakes and mixed-use development, integrating flood control protection, revitalization, restoration and recreation. “This project runs the full gamut of disciplines,” he says. He adds that it will “encompasses unique issues because of flood-protection standards.”

In addition, the project includes two major watersheds and three major floodgates. Some 7 million cu yds of dirt is being moved. Oleson says it’s been running so efficiently that he feels confident the undertaking will receive “high marks for the level of talent attracted and the way everyone came to the table to get the job done.”

“That is in large part due to the leadership of the Corps,” he adds “When it’s all said and done we’ll look over our shoulder and be proud.”

Support During Disaster

The Fort Worth District was indispensable when Hurricane Ike devastated parts of the Texas Gulf Coast in September, lending support efforts for the Galveston District in cooperation with FEMA. During the disaster, the Fort Worth District assumed lead responsibility for the Galveston District the week of the hurricane, and stationed personnel in the Fort Sam Houston office, where the staging for water, power, ice and generators was created.