Feds on Island to Evaluate Military Infrastructure

Feds on island to evaluate future military infrastructure
By Steve Limtiaco
Pacific Daily News
slimtiaco@guampdn.com
12/6/07

Federal officials coordinating the military buildup on Guam are meeting this week to discuss various options for the location of barracks and other new military buildings on the island.

Marine Maj. Gen. David F. Bice, executive director of the Joint Guam Program Office, is on island to meet with engineers as part of the military's master planning process.

The military has announced plans to transfer 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam and to expand Air Force and Navy operations here, resulting in about $15 billion in projects.

The NCTAMS area of Dededo has been identified as the site of a new Marine Corps base.
"We're doing our preferred alternatives/footprint analysis," Bice said yesterday. "This is basically, 'Where do certain buildings go? Where do functional areas go within the locations here on Guam?'"

Bice said the master planning process started during the summer, and master planning engineers have received information from scoping sessions and ongoing environmental studies. They are deciding where to place military housing, training areas and aircraft, among other things.

Bice said several alternative sites were being considered, and have been narrowed to "preferred alternatives."

"Now, we will be doing site-specific analysis of those preferred alternatives," Bice said. "Where do you put the hangar? Where do you put administrative buildings? Where do you put barracks?"

A draft master plan will be complete by next March, and a working-level master plan will be complete by July, Bice said. He said all of the plans will remain "working level" until the environmental studies are completed.