Photo By Richard Bumgardner | Col. Calvin Kroeger, left, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Fort Worth...... read more read more
From Texas to Tokyo and almost everywhere in between, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Southwestern Division’s Regional Planning and Environmental Center’s Master Planning Branch, is planning the way ahead for operations, civil works and military construction projects.
Whether it’s a lake master plan revision for one of the Fort Worth District’s 25 lakes, or a strategic vision plan for the U.S. Space Force, the RPEC Master Planning team is recognized as one of the premier master planning agencies for USACE, the Department of Defense, and other state and federal organizations.
The master planning that RPEC provides for DOD commands and installations is similar to the work completed by a city planner. Rather than planning for a single project, development of government properties and military installations require a comprehensive focus on all factors that affect the present and future physical development and how each project relates to other facilities and existing infrastructure in the area.
For example, each facility will require its own set-up, such as parking lots, water and sewer lines, roads, and electrical support, as well as a network and communications infrastructure. It’s up to the master planners to look at the big picture and see how all facilities, infrastructure, transportation routes, and natural areas work together to create the best future.
“Our goal is to plan future development that maximizes opportunities and minimizes negative impacts rather than building facilities without consideration of how it fits in the broader future vision for the area,” said Joey Ball, chief of the Master Planning Programs Section within RPEC. “That’s part of the value we add with our planning.”
This planning is no more evident than with the Space Force. Founded less than five years ago, the newest component of the U.S. Armed Forces is still in its infancy and planning for its future with the help of RPEC.
“The current project we are executing for the Space Force is called the strategic infrastructure master plan,” said Shawntesha Ingram, a project manager in the Master Planning Technical Section. “The project was contracted to Michael Baker and PRiME Associates. They are gathering data based on specific Space Force site’s capabilities and identifying the current mission for each of them. The contractor is identifying capability gaps and what the Space Force will require in terms of infrastructure and doctrine to meet their mission.”
The Space Force notwithstanding, just because the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps have existed for almost 250 years doesn't mean they're not considering long-term planning as well. Infrastructure planning for each component involves several processes to ensure effective resource utilization and readiness in the United States and overseas. Infrastructure planning is a dynamic process, adapting to changing needs and technological advances.
“There’s a quite a bit of focus on the Pacific,” said Ball. “There’s a lot of planning happening in the region to try and plus up the number of people in the region. There are strategic bases for the military in those areas. One of the first considerations that our master planning team contemplates is the impact of adding more Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines in an area, along with their families, and what ramifications it would have on the existing infrastructure.”
The master planners in RPEC are working with U.S. military installations throughout the Pacific to include those located in the Philippines, Singapore, Australia, South Korea, and Japan.
In the past three years, Ricqui Brager, a RPEC project manager sitting in north Texas, has worked on seven projects with the Army Corps of Engineers’ Pacific Ocean Division. She understands her role in the planning process and how she can help all parties meet their overarching goals for their leadership.
“The most interesting thing is you will work on one project and think it is siloed, but somehow it is related to other projects,” said Brager. “As I move forward, I can look back and see an aggregated picture of the collective master planning in the theater.”
That ability to see the bigger picture is what makes the RPEC Master Planning team part of the DOD's premiere planning agency. They use their local expertise to plan the future infrastructure of installations as far away as Japan.
“We bring the continuity,” said Ball. “We know where planning started, how it got to where we are now, and how we can best leverage the tools available for all these installations to give them the best products.”
| Date Taken: | 10.02.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.02.2024 11:45 |
| Story ID: | 482322 |
| Location: | FORT WORTH, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 129 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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