Fort is ready to upgrade homes of the brave

By Adam Folk| Staff Writer

Col. Frank Penha says his soldiers deserve the best.

So on Wednesday the leader of the 15th Regimental Signal Brigade was happy to take a gold-colored sledge hammer to the wall surrounding a trainee barracks off Barnes Avenue.

Col. Penha joined others Wednesday in kicking off an eight-year, $365 million project to renovate 18 of the 40-year-old trainee barracks at Fort Gordon.

"We give them the best quality of life that we can, but they deserve better," said Col. Penha, who oversees about 5,000 trainees and other personnel.

The renovations in the Trainee Barracks Upgrade Project follow a "nonstandard design," according to John Ramey, director of public works for the fort. The rooms, which now hold either four or eight people, will house just two soldiers. They will also include balconies, new plumbing and bathrooms, and computer labs, Mr. Ramey said.

"The whole campus will not look anything like it does now," he said.

The project also includes the renovation of four dining facilities, four battalion headquarters, eight administrative buildings and a brigade headquarters.

Mr. Ramey said the project, coupled with the creation of a new, $49 million Warrior Transition Battalion campus to be built in 2009 and continued work to upgrade the base's permanent party barracks, will add millions of dollars to the economy.

"In the big picture, over the next eight years, this local economy is going to see an estimated $400 million pumped into the area," Mr. Ramey said.

Work crews can be seen around the base with a number of projects under way or getting ready for construction.

Officials have been tight-lipped about one of the biggest -- the $340 million National Security Agency/Central Security Service Georgia facility. The building, which will occupy about a half-million square feet, will monitor communications from the Middle East and Europe and is to be completed in 2010, according to Thom Tuckey, executive director of the CSRA Alliance for Fort Gordon.

Construction was completed in August on a $5.7 million Battle Command Battle Laboratory, which tests new concepts and signal systems in conjunction with other agencies, and it continues on a $110 million project to renovate and build 877 family homes on base.

"Those that they can salvage, they are remodeling to make better," Mr. Tuckey said. "Those that they can't, they're tearing down and building something new."