All decked out

By Pfc. David Huddleston, 18th Engineer Brigade Public AffairsJanuary 10, 2011

All decked out
Staff Sgt. Daniel Szambelan, a technical engineer sergeant for the 18th Engineer Brigade from Agua Dulce, Calif., measures a piece of deck flooring to be cut at Patrick Henry Village in Heidelberg, Germany. Szambelan and his team of Soldiers are comp... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

HEIDELBERG, Germany - Heidelberg students now have a bigger and better after-school hangout thanks to the Soldiers of the 18th Engineer Brigade who designed and constructed a new deck for the facility.

The brigade's technical headquarters section took over the project from Child, Youth and School Services to help improve the area.

Employing an automated computer design program, site surveys and other resources, the engineers designed and constructed the deck using basic tools such as saws and drills.

"Prior to starting the design we first conducted a site survey to see what actually existed in the area," said technical engineer noncommissioned officer Staff Sgt. Shaun Emmett, from Pittsburg, Pa.

The deck was designed to extend from the back of the Lion's Den to the the concrete masonry wall used by students as a graffiti wall.

However, during the survey, they discovered the wall was not at a 90-degree angle from the building which would cause difficulty in the construction process.

"The biggest problem I had while drafting and designing the deck was working with the European metric system rather than the U.S. standard system for measuring," said Pfc. Billy Joe Johnson III, from Salem, Ore.

"I started designing it in standard board sizes and units but then we had to switch to metric sizes. I had to redraft what I had already done using the metric system which I was not accustomed to," Johnson said.

The Soldiers then took the project through the acquisition process.

"This is where we received approval and attained the funds and all the materials that were needed in order to begin the construction," Emmett said.

As a 12T technical engineer, Emmett's job usually stops at the design or acquisition phase. But, having the unit construct the deck allowed them to compare the end result to their original designs, an advantage of projects like this.

"Some of the greater problems we came across were the result of nothing being really square," said Emmett.

"We had to cut the wood at different angles and we made custom forms so we could cover the entire surface of the working space since there weren't any already made for that size and shape," he said.