District working on new Nellis AFB equipment building
LA District helps prepare Nellis for F-35s
Daniel J. Calderón
Daniel J. Calderón
NELLIS AFB, Nev. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Los Angeles District’s Nellis Resident Office is working to
ensure the incoming F-35 squadrons at Nellis Air Force Base
have the best facilities available. This includes a new Aviation
Ground Equipment facility the District is building on the
base.
“This facility is for maintenance of the ground equipment for the aircraft,” said Brett Young, a civil engineer with
the District’s Resident Office. “It’s one big service station.”
The facility is designed with both indoor and outdoor
repair areas for maintenance equipment. Most of the equipment which will be brought to the facility can go in either
area; however, the larger equipment, the vehicles which
have large ladders attached to them for example, can only be
worked on in the outside bays. Inside, there are eight work
areas in both the North Bay and the South Bay. T he inner
bays also have a heating and a cooling system in addition to
a ventilation system which can help keep the air clean for
workers. The Corps is looking at completing the $11 million
facility either late this year or very early in 2014. The date
originally scheduled for completion is June 2014 so the project is ahead of schedule. Young said the new facility takes
strides forward both in what it can do for the Air Force and
how it will improve working conditions for the AGE maintainers.
“This is a huge improvement over what they currently
have,” he said. “At the current facility, there is one restroom
and no locker rooms.”
The new facility will hold two separate bathroom and
locker rooms with shower areas for employees. An upgrade
that might not be noticed except for those who really need it
is the drinking fountain. The new facility has an addition to
the fountain that can be used to fill water bottles. In the past,
anyone with a bottle or a cup had to tilt it to try and get water
into it. The new fountain dispenses water from above the
bottle or cup so anyone who uses it can keep their receptacle
upright. It might seem like a small thing; but, Young said it is
part of the drive to provide employees and the Air Force with
the best facilities available.
“The break room is plumbed for a refrigerator and there
is no break room at the current facility,” he said. “This space
is going to be dramatically improved.”
Improvements to the facility cross the gamut of processes. The power wash facility, which uses water and steam
to clean AGE, is equipped with bio filters that separate petroleum and other contaminants from water before the water is
put back into the system on base to be recycled. The shade
structures for the outdoor bays are equipped with photovoltaic cells with are designed to provide up to 16 percent of the
power for the facility.
“This is our first project with the Corps of Engineers as
a prime contractor,” said Ronald L. Reed, president of R.L.
Reed, Inc, the prime contractor on the AGE project. “I’ve
been working with the Corps on projects since 2000.”
NELLIS AFB, Nev. – The U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles
District’s Las Vegas Resident Office is
working to help prepare Nellis for the
arrival of the incoming F-35 squadrons.
“This has been quite an involved
project,” said Andy Fikus, the District’s
project engineer for the F-35 hangar
and squadron operations project. “It’s
been done very well and totally on time
and on budget. That doesn’t happen
just by accident.”
Fikus gave the majority of the
credit for the success of the project,
which is due to be turned over to the
base in December, to Straub Construction, the District’s prime contractor on
the project. He said there were some
unforeseen issues with the construc-
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Workers at the site of the new Aviation Ground Equipment facility on Nellis
AFB work on one of the exterior work bays. The Los Angeles District’s Nellis
Resident Office is working on construction of the new facility which will
contain interior and exterior work bays in addition to an enclosed area to
power wash the equipment. (Photo by Daniel J. Calderón)
Reed said he appreciates the opportunity to work with
the Corps on this project. His company is designated as 8(a).
According to the Small Business Administration site “The 8(a)
Business Development Program helps small, disadvantaged
businesses compete in the marketplace.” Before a business
owner applies to the SBA for 8(a) status, information on the
site encourages them to ask themselves a few questions: “Am I
a small business according to SBA’s size standards? Is my business 51 percent owned by one or more individuals who qualify as socially and economically disadvantaged and are U.S.
citizens? Is my business controlled, managed and operated by
one or more individuals who qualify as disadvantaged? Have
I been in business for at least two years?” There is much more
information on the SBA site. Reed said his experience as an
8(a) company working with the Corps has helped his business
improve and that in turn has helped his customers.
“Learning the proper procedures and processes have been
great for us,” Reed said. “Each step along the way has advanced
our knowledge base. Over the years, we’ve been able to elevate
our quality and professionalism until we are now up to the
standards of the Corps.”
Although the contractor and the Corps are working
through the final details of the project, they have turned over
pieces of it at the request of the Air Force. Young said they
completed and turned over the running track across from the
facility to the base in addition to the parking lot.
Reed said he looks forward to working on future projects
with the Corps.
“The Corps has the highest standards of quality that we
know of,” he said. “So, we’re very proud to be working with the
Corps.”
tion. One of the larger ones came before
the contractor even started pouring any
concrete.
“Three buildings were demolished
and we had to do a lot of over-excavating” said Robert C. Huse, Straub’s
superintendent for the project. “That
means we had to remove several feet of
material and bring in structural fill to
create a level that’s solid so the building
doesn’t sink over the years.”
During the course of the over-excavation, the team came upon three
18,000 gallon metal tanks buried. They
contacted the District and the base to
request a way forward. Nellis’ archeologist came to survey the site and
found information on the tanks that
dated them to World War II. According
to base officials, the tanks contained
benzene so the Straub team conducted
a hazardous material cleanup prior to
getting into the construction phase.
Since that time, the construction
has gone well, according to both Fikus
and Huse. The facility is designed to
meet the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design Silver standards. The
District has installed plaques throughout the hangar and squadron buildings
which detail aspects of the building’s
“green” construction and design. Huse
s aid the labor for the project did come
from multiple locations; however, the
company did use local contractors
for masonry, electricity and specialty
subcontractors. As someone who knows
the local area, Huse said he plans to
use more local labor if he is involved in
future contracts.
The hangar was turned over to Nellis AFB Nov. 15.
Workers put the finishing touches on the newest F-35 hangar and squadron operations facility on Nellis AFB. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los
Angeles District’s Las Vegas Resident Office is working to help prepare Nellis for the arrival of the incoming F-35 squadrons with the new construction
project. (Photo by Daniel J. Calderón)
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