District BRAC projects earn industry awards

Posted October 21, 2009
By Jerry Rogers
Norfolk District Public Affairs

10/22/2009 - NORFOLK, Va — Two 2005 Base Realignment and Closure projects, managed by Norfolk District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, recently earned multiple 2009 industry association awards for excellence in design-build construction.

McGraw-Hill's Mid-Atlantic Construction magazine awarded the Army Logistics University or ALU at Fort Lee, Va., with the Award of Merit in the Government/Public category and a Special Jury Award for Project Management.

"The Norfolk District project team excelled in overcoming the project's two greatest challenges: coordinating the installation of all the technology and designing and building the project on an aggressive, fast-track schedule," said Bruce Buckley, editor of Mid-Atlantic Construction. The Army Logistics University project also achieved an excellent safety record: recordable incidents vs. man-hours: zero vs. 78,583 man-hours; lost time accidents: zero, added Buckley.

The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Design-Build Institute of America or DBIA honored Norfolk District contractor Tompkins Builders, Inc., with the 2009 Design-Build Excellence Award in Public Sector Buildings category, for its work on the $50 million Sustainment Center of Excellence or SCOE project at Fort Lee.

"We are proud to continue our relationship with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and to be honored by the DBIA for successfully delivering the SCOE project to benefit our servicemen and women at Fort Lee," said Ed Small, president, Tompkins Builders.

The Associated General Contractors-Washington, D.C. chapter also honored Tompkins Builders and the Corps with a Merit Award for Design-Construction of the SCOE project.

"This merit award honors great projects in areas where our contractors do business," said Cherie Pleasant, chief executive officer of AGC-Metropolitan D.C. "It took great teamwork between the Corps and Tompkins to complete this multi-functional project on time and within budget."

Mid-Atlantic Construction, in announcing its 40 award-winners, spanning 16 categories, said the independent jury, whose members represented architects, engineers and general contractors, focused on those projects that best achieved the established goals of the project team:

• Overcoming significant challenges
• Adopting innovative approaches
• Executing exceptional design and craftsmanship
• Maintaining safe sites; and
• Displaying strong teamwork

With a total cost of $136 million, Army Logistics University is the newest and largest completed 2005 BRAC project at Fort Lee. The ALU resembles an all-inclusive small-college campus, located on 46 acres with more than 300,000 square-feet. ALU trains military students from 63 foreign countries, housing approximately 2,300 students daily.

DBIA cited Tompkins Builders for completing the Corps' Sustainment Center of Excellence project within the prescribed 18-month schedule, for delivering the project within budget and for constructing the SCOE to achieve a LEED® Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Completed in December 2008, the 218, 579 square-feet SCOE headquarters is a multi-functional center overseeing all logistics, human resources, finance training and combat developments for the U.S. Army. Expertise in supply, services, maintenance, munitions and transportation are now located on a single installation, making the SCOE the lifeblood of Army logistics. Under BRAC 2005, the SCOE consolidated logistics schools from three installations onto Fort Lee -- the U.S. Army Transportation Center and School from Fort Eustis, Va.; the U.S. Army Ordnance Mechanical Maintenance School from Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md.; and the U.S. Army Ordnance Munitions and Electronics Maintenance School from Redstone Arsenal, Ala.

When the 2005 BRAC authorization projects are completed at Fort Lee in September 2011, the Corps will have managed the construction of 32 military projects totaling about $1.34 billion, said William G. Robson, P.E., contracting officer's representative and Fort Lee BRAC area engineer.

Robson contributes the success of the Fort Lee BRAC program to many factors, but most important, he said, is the team's goal to provide a quality project on time, within budget and environmentally sound and safe for Soldiers and their families.

"Awards and recognition are fine and the team feels a great sense of pride," said Robson, "but our real satisfaction comes every day when we hear our Soldiers, who occupy these great facilities, say, ‘Man, I have never been in a place as nice as this…Wow!'"