MacDill construction boom hits a new high in 2008

  • Published
  • By Nick Stubbs
  • Thunderbolt staff writer
MacDill is alive with construction activity, a boom that began around the new millennium, but as they say, "you ain't seen nothing yet."

Fiscal year 2008 will mark the biggest spurt of growth the base has seen since its inception just after World War II. How big? About $193 million in new construction and improvements, said Kevin Powell, area engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers Florida Area Office, based at MacDill.

"It's huge," he said. "It's a major year for us."

Mr. Powell's office administers most of the base projects, as well as all military construction in Florida. He has two resident offices at MacDill under his direction and two others are scheduled to open to support the busy 2008 construction year. His current staff of 22 will expand to 35 in the coming weeks.

Among the major jobs, some of which have already begun or will be kicking off before 2007 ends, include a pair of parking garages, a 96-room dormitory, a new security forces squadron headquarters building, the new medical clinic to be built behind the Commissary, a new PharmaCare facility, expansions at U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command, buildings to house the 927th Air Refueling Wing relocating to MacDill and several other office spaces and infrastructure improvement projects.

The amount of work around base over the coming months likely will make MacDill look more like a "new build" than an installation that's been sitting in the middle of Tampa Bay since the Air Force was established nearly 60 years ago.

But even this unprecedented growth may pale in comparison to what may come if MacDill is chosen to base the new KC-X tanker, which once chosen will replace the aging KC-135R Stratotankers, many of which date back to the late 1950s.

Mr. Powell said it will be up to the Air Force to determine if the new tankers are in MacDill's future, but if chosen, MacDill has the capacity to host the new, larger planes.

"We are ready and able to accommodate them," he said.

"The continuing and rapid growth at MacDill is an indication of the strategic importance of the Wing's air refueling and transport missions and its role as host to multiple commands central to the Global War on Terrorism," said Col. Robert Thomas, 6th Air Mobility Wing commander.

Mr. Powell concedes the message for the coming months will be "pardon the dust," but he adds the improvements and expansion will go a long way in supporting the personnel and mission at MacDill and providing many with the elbow room they have been needing for some time.

"With the growth here, this really is something (that MacDill has) needed," he said.