U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects: summer plans move forward despite decreased budget.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Building Alaska

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It's summertime, and that means construction season in Alaska. But this year there win be a little less building going on, especially at military bases around the state. Cuts in military construction spending nationwide by the U.S. Department of Defense are affecting the number of contracts awarded for work; stagnant spending in civil and environmental projects is also affecting the number of projects in fiscal year 2013.

In December 2012, it was announced that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Alaska District would be facing drastic budget cuts to its military construction program. The budget for FY12 was $245 million for nine military construction projects: The FY13 budget is $18 million to fund two projects.

"Specific military construction projects authorized by Congress have been on the decline recently; in FY13, we will only be working on two of these projects, both modified record fire ranges," explains Mark Coburn, acting chief of the military branch of the Corp's Alaska District Programs and Project Management Division. "These projects, which will take place at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and at Fort Wainwright, will include building a number of facilities and redesigning the small arms firing ranges."

The Elmendorf-Richardson project is budgeted at $7.9 million, and Wainwright is expected to come in around $10.4 million. "Depending on the bids we get, the projects could cost more or less than that," Coburn says. "We've already sent out RFPs and received proposals, but I am not at liberty to divulge who will be awarded the contracts yet."

At the time of this story, funds had not yet been released for these projects as a result of the Congressional sequester that began in March 2013. "Assuming that we get the financing in time, we're hoping to start these projects early in the construction season; it should only be a one-season contract," Coburn says. "It does have the potential to kick into a second year if the funds are not awarded early enough."

This is quite a change from construction seasons past, when the Corps had ten to fifteen projects under way. According to Coburn, the good news is that FY14 looks to be a better year, with two projects coming online at Fort Wainwright as part of the Aviation Task Force bed-down.

"Aviation Task Force 3B is budgeted at $58 million and includes four separate contracts for a warm storage hangar, company operations facility, organizational vehicle parking lot, and the...