ALBUQUERQUE DISTRICT

District personnel are overseeing the design work on a project to build a new Nuclear Weapons Sustainment Center at Kirtland Air Force Base. 

According to project specifications, the new facility will expand the existing mission’s capability by providing a new, two-story, 55,000 square-foot building.  The state of the art, highly-flexible facility will consolidate personnel into one location for increased efficiency and effective, timely communication.  The new center will have extensive electronic information systems and graphical displays to meet the mission requirements.  It will unite the entire organization and maximize synergy among all the mission components.

According to Project Manager Connie Runyan, “the contract was awarded to KL House Construction through the Albuquerque District, and the construction period is 660 days for the design-build project.”  Runyan explained that a design-build project is one in which the design and construction services are contracted by a single entity known as the design–construct or design–build contractor.   

“In contrast to “design–bid–build,” design-build relies on a single point of responsibility contract and is used to minimize risks for the project owner and to reduce the delivery schedule by over-lapping the design phase and construction phase of a project,” Runyan said.

District and Air Force engineers met with the contractor for a design charrette the week of July 9, and the design is expected to be complete in late fall.