Department of the Army Historical Summary: FY 1984

10

Construction, Facilities, and Real Property

The Army maintained a large inventory of facilities to house personnel, to store equipment and other materiel, to provide offices and services, and to support training functions. The Corps of Engineers (COE) was responsible for building, modernizing, maintaining, and supplying physical security equipment for these facilities. The following chapter presents the major accomplishments of the Corps' mission.

The FY 84 Military Construction, Army, program value amounted to $975.9 million with a goal of completing 95 percent of that program by the fourth quarter of the fiscal year. COE surpassed that goal by 4.7 percent for a total execution of $972.67 million. The COE added a $2 million carryover from FY83 to the total funding available for the fiscal year. The FY 84 Military Construction, Army Reserve, program totaled $34 million with an executing goal of 95 percent by the fourth quarter. The Corps fulfilled 100 percent of the program. The FY 84 Military Construction, Air Force, program amounted to $1,194.38 million and the execution goal of 95 percent by the fourth quarter was met exactly with expenditures of $1,134.54 million.

Miscellaneous non-Army construction programs equaled $374.93 million with an execution goal of 94 percent ($350.69 million) by the fourth quarter. The Corps of Engineers executed only 84 percent ($314.17 million) of the goal and attributed much of the delay to redesign efforts in the Defense Language Institute and National Security Agency programs.

Work continued on the King Khalid Military City in Saudi Arabia, which will house 70,000 people and three brigades of Saudi Arabian troops. USACE, the organization responsible for contracting out the work, provided design and construction services on approximately $17 billion worth of projects since 1974. During FY84, the Saudis continued to become more involved in developing and managing the contracts. The Corps finished construction of a $4 million incinerator for the Japanese government on Yokota Air

[207]

Base. The incinerator will burn all of the waste generated on Yokota except for glass and rubber, thereby greatly reducing landfill requirements. The U.S. Navy asked the COE to assist the Peruvian Navy in its plans to build a base at Chimbote. The Corps will proceed with a base development plan upon the approval of the Peruvian Navy and appropriation of funding. WESTCOM requested Corps of Engineers planning assistance to revise Hawaiian installation master plans. This was WESTCOM's first regional planning effort since their 1979 establishment as a MACOM.

For the first time since becoming the Executive Agent for recruiting facilities, the Chief of Engineers maintained direct control over almost all of the recruiting facilities programs. The Corps completed 99.3 percent of the program's 2,048 actions by the fourth quarter, exceeding the goal of 95 percent. In a 29 November 1983 meeting of the DOD Task Force on Recruiting Facilities, the OCE representative from the Real Estate Directorate discussed with the Recruiting Commands what initiatives the Corps had undertaken to stabilize the program. The primary one was OCE's assuming the responsibility to approve modifications to facilities. Previously, Corps district and division commanders made these decisions. The Facilities and Installation Planning and Design statistics are shown on the following tables. (See Tables 39 and 40.)

TABLE 39 - FACILTTIES AND INSTALLATION PLANNING
(In percent)

[208]

TABLE 40 - PLANNING AND DESIGN COSTS MILITARY PROGRAMS
(In millions)

1 COE established goal met.

Representatives from the Directorate of Engineering arid Construction, one Corps division, and several COE districts attended the FORSCOM Design Review Conference from 31 May to I June. Attendees discussed military construction project planning and development and participation by installation personnel in subsequent design, construction, and operation. Conference members also identified a number of areas of poor communication and lack of common understanding among the installations, Corps districts, and the Office of the Chief of Engineers.

The Corps of Engineers continued to work on the Installation Facilities System-Redesign project, a sophisticated information management system on VIABLE to support directors of engineering and housing at Army installations. The Facilities Engineering Support Agency handled functional aspects while the Information Systems Command developed the ADP systems. When implemented in the third quarter of FY 85, the project will replace the present system operating at seventy installations.

The Corps published two new guides during FY 84. The design guide for libraries governed the layout of Army libraries and technical information facilities, while the design protocol for interiors regulated the specifications of all interiors for Army facilities.

The Army received four DOD Design Awards in FY 84, including two shared with the Air Force:

[209]

The Backlog of Maintenance and Repair (BMAR) program improved living and working conditions for U.S. troops, particularly those stationed overseas. The Real Property Maintenance Activities (RPMA) program directed BMAR activities based upon an FY 83 priority system that identified the most critical projects requiring attention. RPMA's K account, Maintenance and Repair of Real Property, expanded through the 1980s, reflecting an increased concern about the relation of facility conditions to troop morale. As a result, the BMAR dropped for three consecutive years with approximately $428 million contracted out during FY 84.

A DOD memorandum of 18 June 1984 increased delegated authority for repair projects to all services. Therefore, on 10 July the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Installations and Logistic) redelegated approval authority as follows:

COE-up to $3.0 million.
MACOM-up to $2.0 million.
MACOM-may redelegate authority to installation for up to $1.0 million.
MACOM-required to review repair projects for WWII temporary buildings costing over $10,000 for compliance to DA policy.

On 13 February 1984, the Secretary of the Air Force transferred Hamilton Air Force Base, California, to the Department of the Army. The Army acquired approximately 762 acres of the base and retained care and custody over the remainder. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees approved the $3.5 million purchase of 39.49 acres of Ladycliff College, which the Army had leased for use by the U.S. Army Military Academy since December 1982. The New York District of the Corps of Engineers received the deed on 28 June 1984. The Directorate of Real Estate and the Chicago Mill and Lumber Company agreed on the purchase prices of two separate tracts of land for the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana. The first tract of 16,342.28 acres cost $14,543,280, exceeding appraised value by 9.5 percent and the second tract of 2,355.34 acres sold for $2,355,000 or 13 percent over the appraisal. With these purchases, the refuge totaled 35,523 acres.

The Department of Defense issued policy guidelines (DOD Directive 4700.3) on making DOD lands available for private exploration and extraction of resources on 28 September 1984. The Army was the Executive Agent for the directive, which stated that such activities may be allowed if they would not interfere with military operations, national defense activities, or Army civil works projects. The Property Review Board declared 150 acres of land on the Parks Reserve Forces Training Area, California, as excess to

[210]

Department of Army requirements. In addition, the Sacramento District Real Estate Division sent a right of entry and draft lease to Alameda County on 1 June 1984. The lease formed the basis for a homeless shelter, DOD's largest, comprising two buildings, and two acres of land. Effective 1 July, the county undertook the two-year lease that required the state to assume law enforcement functions in the shelter area prior to occupancy.

In December 1981, Public Law 97-128 terminated construction of Meramec Park Lake, Missouri, and made COE responsible for offering previous landowners the opportunity to repurchase their property (less that already conveyed to Missouri) at current appraised value. The St. Louis District completed an appraisal which showed that 26 percent of the properties increased over 50 percent in value since the original purchase and 25 percent dropped by 50 percent or more in value. The Corps expected some previous owners to react adversely to their higher repurchase costs. COE mailed the first letters to over 600 former property owners in November 1983. In December, more than 100 owners met to denounce their appraisal and to discuss legal action. Subsequently, they filed a law suit to nullify the conveyance of land in the Meramec Basin to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and to arrange a formula for setting resale prices that the landowners felt would be fair.

The Departments of Interior, Agriculture, Defense, and the Tennessee Valley Authority issued final regulations in the Federal Register on 6 January 1984 that established uniform procedures for implementing provisions of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979. The 1979 act replaced a 78-year-old measure archaeologists said was ineffective in preventing people from selling or destroying priceless artifacts unearthed on federal land. The Corps' Directorate of Real Estate acted as DOD's Executive Agent. One aspect of the new regulations allowed recognized Indian tribes to testify before permits are issued for archaeological excavations in areas outside their reservations that they consider important for ceremonial or religious reasons. However, some Indian groups remained displeased, because the new act still allowed burial sites to be excavated once the archaeologists have obtained the necessary permits.

Senate Report 97-440 directed the services to dispose of their WW II temporary buildings by 1990, to limit any further expenditures on them, and to replace them, where necessary, with pre-engineered buildings. As a result, the VCSA signed a policy letter in February on the disposal of WWII temporary buildings containing nearly 38 million square feet of space. This letter was an attempt to address con-

[211]

gressional concerns while protecting favorable MCA funding and maintaining the missions of the installations.

The Corps of Engineers satisfied Delaware's urgent need for solid waste landfill areas by allowing the Delaware Solid Waste Authority to establish a disposal site at the Corps' Cherry Island Disposal Area. The agreement for joint use allowed the Delaware Solid Waste Authority to use immediately the first of five incremental land areas they would receive. The discontinuance of Corps use of 210 acres on Cherry Island depended upon Delaware providing the Corps a replacement disposal area for dredge spoil. The land exchange will occur in the near future.

The Directorate of Real Estate recommended that the Secretary of the Army convey 37.6 acres of land and water areas at the Newt Graham Lock and Dam No. 18, Oklahoma, to the city of Tulsa-Rogers County Port Authority. The Port Authority asked for this real estate to meet the expected growth of waterfront and industrial activities at the public port facility. The Port Authority agreed to pay $950,000 and to assume the responsibility for dredging the turning basin and maintaining the river banks in the area conveyed.

Physical Security

The Corps of Engineers concentrated most of their physical security work overseas. In October 1983, it approved $738,000 for the construction of security fencing, lighting, and aircraft hardstands at Mutlangen Air Base, Germany. The airbase at Greisham, Germany, received funding in February 1984 for perimeter fencing and lighting.

Within the United States, the Corps, in November 1983, approved $400,000 for security fencing and parking areas in the ammo limited area of the Red River Ammunition Depot, Texas.

[212]

Return to Table of Contents

	Return to CMH Online
	Last updated 8 March 2004