Courtesy Photo | A rendering from Fort Hood’s Real Property Planning Division shows the Clear...... read more read more
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By Heather Graham-Ashley, Fort Hood Sentinel news editor
FORT HOOD, Texas - Fort Hood continues to grow to better meet the needs of troops, their families and civilians through ongoing construction and recent awards to ensure that growth continues.
Currently, more than $712 million in Military Construction, Army, projects are in progress across the installation.
In addition to the continued construction of the $850-million Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center replacement hospital, a dozen other projects are helping to ensure Fort Hood will remain a premier installation not only for training troops, but also for caring for the Soldiers, families and civilians.
Soon, many of these new facilities and amenities will be open for use.
“By this time next year, a lot of these projects will be done,” Brian Dosa, director, Fort Hood Directorate of Public Works, said.
With construction projects spanning the entirety of the installation, from the nearly complete barracks and dining facility at North Fort Hood’s Operational Readiness Training Center to the new unmanned aerial systems campus on West Fort Hood and new company areas and amenities across the main cantonment, it reflects the Army’s commitment to Fort Hood, Dosa said.
On the installation’s eastern side, construction continues at the 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade campus with the building of company operations areas and motor pools that will eventually serve two Terminal High-Altitude Air Defense batteries that are slated to move to Fort Hood.
“These projects should be complete this fall,” Dosa said.
Another large motor pool facility for 69th ADA also is planned for completion this fall.
At West Fort Hood, work continues at the unmanned aircraft system campus that will house two companies of Gray Eagle UAS troops.
The hangar was completed last fall. Current construction projects include a company operations center that should be finished this spring and a motor pool slated for completion this fall, Dosa said.
The motor pool will include a geothermal HVAC system that forgoes electricity and runs exclusively on water piped through the floor. Infrastructure improvements at West Fort Hood, including road work, a new entry control point and removal of the old water tower, also continue and should be complete next spring.
At North Fort Hood, work continues on new barracks for officers and Soldiers and the dining facility to better serve the needs of troops training there.
“The barracks are coming along and the DFAC will be complete this summer,” Dosa said.
Fort Hood’s Training Campus, which will consolidate simulators and other training aids at a central location near the main cantonment, continues to take shape with the construction of the Training Support Center, which should open in June.
DPW also received unexpected funding from Congress for the Mission Training Center to be built at the Training Campus.
“The MTC is now funded,” Dosa said. “It was a surprise at the last minute.”
The design for the center will be complete and the project put out for bids so the work can begin by the end of this calendar year, he added noting that the MTC should open in 2017.
As training opportunities grow for Soldiers, so are the amenities and facilities that enhance the quality of life for all on the installation.
Construction is wrapping up at the Clear Creek Exchange Mall and expected to be complete this spring with the opening this summer, according the Paula Gunderson, general manager, Fort Hood Exchange, AAFES.
The Exchange Mainstore will be markedly different from the current Exchange with new vendors and concept shops.
“This will enhance our customers’ shopping experience while providing efficiency, service and value pricing,” Gunderson said. “Our vision is to be the preferred retail and service provider for our military through extraordinary customer experience and value pricing. The new mall clearly depicts our vision.”
Several new vendors have committed to the new mall, including Boston Market, Starbucks, Arby’s and Denny’s Express for dining and a MAC cosmetics store, Pro Image sports store, Rosetta Stone and others, Gunderson said.
“Other commodities are still in negotiations,” she added.
Single Soldiers and families also will see changes where they live.
Fort Hood received funding from Installation Management Command in December to renovate the seven remaining VOLAR barracks, Dosa said.
Fort Hood Family Housing has reinvested $80 million to complete renovations and the conversion of Chaffee Village units from duplexes to single-family homes, as well as the construction of 64 new homes in North Wainwright, Dosa said.
Other projects, such as a pump station to provide a back-up water source and the harvesting of renewable energy through solar power on post and wind energy from off post, will also enhance the quality of life on the installation.
Tying all of the work together is Fort Hood’s Master Plan of Area Development Plans that consolidate services, amenities and facilities for ease of access.
Two current examples of ADPS include the Training Campus and the 69th ADA Campus, but others are taking shape.
“ADPs, as well as Area Development Execution Plans, are now complete for all districts,” Kristina Manning, chief, Real Property Planning Division, DPW, said. “We have also completed the Installation Development Plan which brings all of the ADPs together and ensures they are consistent.”
The largest of the area development plan districts, the Clear Creek-Darnall District, will link the medical campus to the shopping on Clear Creek with family housing in-between. When new facilities open, their former buildings will be returned to the installation and re-purposed, Manning said.
| Date Taken: | 01.29.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 01.29.2015 17:23 |
| Story ID: | 153071 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 899 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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