Constructing Optimism, Momentum, and History: Military contributes billions of dollars to Interior projects.

• Author: Simonelli, Isaac Stone
• Position: Building Alaska

Military modernization and Alaska's strategic importance in the world are bringing more than a billion dollars of construction projects to the Interior.

Construction in the area was bolstered when the military and veteran affairs budget for federal Fiscal Year 2019 cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee in June with approvals for continued investment in Alaska military installation and programs.

"This funding bill is critical to providing the resources that we need to grow the military's strategic presence in Alaska," Senator Lisa Murkowski said in a statement. "The Air Force has identified Eielson's new F-35 mission as one of its top funding priorities, and I am pleased to see that they are putting substantial investments toward that mission."

Ahead of the approval, Lucian Niemeyer, assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations, and environment, toured military construction projects in the Last Frontier.

"Because of the magnitude of the investments we are spending in the Fairbanks area, I felt it was important to come up here and get a first-hand look at what we are delivering to the warfighter and in time to meet their timeline," Niemeyer said.

MF4 at Fort Greely

During his June visit, Niemeyer took part in the groundbreaking ceremony of the Missile Field Four (MF4) construction project at Fort Greely, near Delta Junction. Construction on MF4 is underway to add twenty new Ground Based Interceptors (GBIs), which would bring the total deployed GBIs at Fort Greely to sixty by 2023, Fort Greely public affairs officer Chris Maestas says.

"The FY2018 Defense Appropriations Bill allocated $568 million to initiate the expansion of MF4 and $393 million above the request to accelerate the development and fielding of twenty GBIs with a modern kill vehicle/new missile field at Fort Greely," Maestas says, noting that not all the funds will be going to Fort Greely.

Watterson Construction Company, headquartered in Anchorage, secured nearly $29 million of the budget for the construction of MF4's mechanical electrical building.

"The Corps selects contractors based on the proposal that provides the best value to the federal government in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation," says John Budnik, public affairs specialist USACE-Alaska District.

In addition to Watterson Construction, three other contractors are prequalified to complete the MF4 work: Bechtel National, Davis Constructors and Engineers, and Neeser Construction.

As of early August, "Other MF4 infrastructure has not been awarded yet...