Air Force’s largest housing project picks up momentum

Published Aug. 15, 2007
By Susan Griggs
81st Training Wing Public Affairs

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- That's not thunder you hear in the distance -- it's the rumble of progress as Keesler's housing construction program picks up speed.

The largest military family housing project in Air Force history, with a price tag of $287.8 million, kicked off March 30, about a year before the first homes are slated for delivery.

A project management review took place July 31 with officials from the 81st Civil Engineer Squadron, Air Force Center for Engineering Excellence and TEAM Integrated Engineering inspection services subcontractor. Also attending were representatives of Hunt Building Co. and Yates Construction Co., partners in building the homes.

Originally, 1,067 homes were being built, but that number has been reduced to 1,028. Eleven fewer homes are being built in Bay Ridge to accommodate the new road for the Bay Breeze Events Center. Another 28 homes were eliminated in Thrower Park because funding wasn't received to relocate the family campground.

Floor plans for the single family and duplex units meet or exceed the Air Force's benchmark square footage standards. All have three or four bedrooms and two stories, except for handicapped-accessible homes, and include a garage.

Headway is most evident in Thrower Park, according to Craig Merkerson, base housing program manager. The first walls are being raised there Aug. 20.

Earthwork, which involves site grading and filling, removal of old utilities, digging for new utilities, removal of undesirable soil and vegetation and compacting dirt for roads and foundations, is more than 91 percent complete.

"To a kid, playing in a sandbox is earthwork -- our contractor just has much bigger, more technically advanced toys to push their earth around," Mr. Merkerson said.

"Hunt-Yates utilizes state-of-the-art electronic equipment on tractors and dozers to set the elevation of the site, roads and foundations -- saving time saves money," he explained. "In almost all areas, the ground elevation has to be raised higher than new FEMA flood plan requirements. The new homes will all have a finished floor elevation of at least 18 feet."

In Thrower Park, underground wet utilities are 90 percent complete, and nearly half of the underground dry utilities such as electrical, television and phone cable installation have been laid. Completion for under-slab plumbing is 23 percent and building foundations is 15 percent.

"The goal is to pour two foundations a day," Mr. Merkerson stated. "Then crews start framing, roofing, wiring, insulating, heating, ventilation, air conditioning and ductwork, above-ground plumbing, interior wallboard, and keep going until the first home, possibly three homes, is delivered in late March.

"All the Thrower Park homes are planned, and I anticipate the roads will come later than some of the homes, if not after all homes in a section are completed," he continued. "Hunt-Yates will build a section of Thrower Park, one street with 18 homes, and try to turn that over for use as soon as possible."

In Northwest Falcon Park, earthwork is 14 percent completed and underground wet utility work has begun.

The first home was leveled in the Shadowlawn area Monday. Asbestos abatement is under way.

A new construction fence in the area serves as the base perimeter fence to allow contractor use of an off-base staging site, similar to the one off Forrest Avenue that leads to the new base exchange and commissary building area. The setup eliminates some of the traffic tie-ups with construction vehicles at the base gates.

A lay-down area in the former Oak Park housing area is fenced for use by Hunt-Yates.

Two pre-engineered metal storage facilities are being built at the corner of Bayview Avenue and Kensington Drive across from the youth center for subcontractor material storage.