The Corps of Engineers' Fort Worth District and the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, are teaming up to complete a civil works project along the Salt Creek in Graham, Texas.
This is a first for Huntsville Center's Facilities Reduction Program.
"I believe this project is the beginning of many civil works projects for the Facilities Reduction Program," said Dennis Bacon, Huntsville's FRP program manager. "This expands the services that we offer to the Army as well the USACE Civil Works mission."
Fort Worth District's Bob Smalley approached Bacon in early first quarter FY12.
"We are very excited about supporting Fort Worth District on this project," Bacon said. FRP plans to remove about 33 nonstructural flood damaged facilities as part of a flood reclamation project. Work is expected to start in late June so that the entire project can be complete by the fall. It should take about a month for the facilities to be removed.
"We are teaming up with the Fort Worth District to help with the demolition of structures that are within the flood reclamation area," Bacon said. "Graham, Texas, officials have a long-term plan to develop the area into green space, with a park and walking trails, a pavilion and other features."
This area is in a 10-year flood plain according to Smalley, Fort Worth District's project manager. Graham is about two hours northwest of Fort Worth, Texas, in an area that regularly floods. The Fort Worth District acquired the properties, and together with Huntsville Center will demolish or clean up the properties, then turn the properties over to the Brazos River Authority which will in turn hand the properties over to the city of Graham.
The initial site visit Jan. 15-16 set the stage for the project. Huntsville Center will award the task order for the project under an existing FRP Multiple Award Task Order Contract and provide project management during execution. Fort Worth District will assist in scope development and perform Contracting Officer Representative and Quality Assurance during execution.
"This isn't a typical project for us," said Blaine Guidry, the lead engineer for FRP. "Most of the work we do is on military installations or with NASA, behind a guarded gate with a well defined scope that tells us what to do."
"The general timeline for the project is proposals for the project are expected to be in by the end of March, the work plan completed in the May time frame, and field work starting the end of June. The City of Graham, Texas, director of Public Works will begin their project in the fall of this year," Bacon said. "The project includes the demolition of houses and commercial buildings and fences and other ancillary structures."
FRP eliminates excess facilities and structures to reduce fixed installation costs and achieve energy savings. Using the Department of Defense Facilities Pricing Guide (UFC 3-701-09) as the cost reference, FRP achieves a simple return on investment in four to eight years from energy savings. When all cost factors are included, the simple return on investment is in the range of two years for the majority of facility removal projects.
Historically, FRP has achieved a programmatic landfill diversion rate of approximately 72 percent, significantly exceeding the Department of Defense diversion policy of 50 percent by weight where economically feasible. In FY11, FRP had regional Multiple Award Task Order Contracts with $240 million in capacity and a $30 million budget. The average cost for Army facility removal in FY12 was $8.16 per square foot, more than a 50 percent reduction from FY04.
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