Closing headaches teach city valuable lessons
When Chanute Air Force Base closed in September 1993 after 76 years of operation, reuse efforts became the responsibility of Rantoul, Ill..
To facilitate a reuse plan, Mayor Katy Podagrosi announced a two-year, $500,000 economic development campaign to attract businesses and jobs and increase taxes to rebuild the base, restore jobs and, thus, revitalize the town.
But, since Chanute was one of the first bases on the closure list, neither it nor the city had a redevelopment template from which to work. Problems were rampant.
In the beginning, for example, frequent changes in base closure personnel meant that the city was constantly forced to build and rebuild personal relationships.
Secondly, the communtiy had to adopt a Base Reuse Plan that incorporated and environmental impact study on base closure and reuse, as well as a Socioeconomic Impact Analysis and a Base Historic Evaluation, all of which were crucial in helping the city to make the right decisions.
As with any plan, there were a number of changes in the initial decisions. For instance, Chanute originally agreed to transfer the base golf course property to the community but reversed its decision later.
Chanute also agreed to a no-cost transfer of its electricity distribution system to the city but later decided that Rantoul would have to purchase the system before the airfield and buildings could be transferred to city operations.
As the result of a coordinated effort among the community, the Air Force and the General Services Administration, the base was divided into a number of parcels for disposal. Some were sold, some went to Rantoul via public benefit transfer, and some were parceled out to entities like the University of Illinois.
Transfer of water and wastewater lines, streets and electricity distribution lines also created headaches but taught Rantoul a valuable lesson: the infrastructure of an old military base is complicated, and cities should not accept ownership of streets and roads before disposal of the base properties is completed. Additionally, since Chanute was federal property, federal officers maintained law and order. After closure, legal action was required to give local officials authority over the property. In Illinois, the state legislature and the governor had to grant Rantoul authority to police the former base.
If you build it …
Cooper Lecky Architects, Washington, D.C., recently completed the Municipal Center and Town Green for the town of Herndon, Va. The $5.2 million center is built over under-ground parking and is designed to be a user-friendly, self-orienting and accessible government center.
York Hunter, Newark, N.J., has been selected by the Atlantic County Improvement Authority to provide construction management services for major infrastructure improvements in Atlantic City, N.J. The $25 million project is part of the Atlantic City Convention Center Corridor Project, a $175 million showpiece project that will revitalize the city’s boardwalk area with new entertainment and retail attractions.
The Ralph M. Parsons Co., Pasadena Calif., was awarded a contract to provide design and construction management services to the $605 million Clark County (Nev.) School District renovation program. With The Fleming Corp. and the Taylor International Corp., the company will oversee development of 19 new elementary schools, three new middle schools and two new high schools, as well as the rehabilitation of 119 existing elementary schools.
Einhorn Yafee Prescott, Albany, N.Y., recently began work on the new 37,000-square-foot Essex county Courthouse in Elizabethtown, N.Y. Using the design/manage process, the firm guaranteed a $4.1 million maximum price for all architectural/engineering fees, construction management services and construction costs.
Wold Architects and Engineers, St. Paul, Minn., has been selected to provide services on five projects in Minnesota: the renovation of the Steele County Courthouse in Owatonna, renovation of the Mower County Courthouse Enforcement Center in Austin, a space-needs assessment for construction of a freestanding City Hall in downtown St. Paul Park and planning studies for the Orono Public Schools and St. Cloud Community Schools.
Water, water, everywhere Metcalf & Eddy, Branchburg, N.J., has been awarded a contract by Harford County, Md., to provide additional design services at the Sod Run Wastewater Treatment Plant. Under the contract, the company will design a dual electrical feeder System, a stormwater pumping station, chemical feed systems, barries and improvements to septage handling.
The Las Vegas Valley Water District has retained Montgomery Watson, Las Vegas, to provide design, construction and special engineering services on a $16 million, 20-million, gallon reservoir and a 100-mgd Pumping station in a newly developing area of the valley. The company also recently designed a $22 million wetlands enhancement project for Riverside, Calif., that features an all-natural process to remove nitrogen from wastewater.
San Diego has hired locally based Berryman & Henigar to design a Pump station and force main to convey wastewater from an existing San Ysidro trunk sewer to the South Bay Pump Station Reclamation Plant in the Tijuana River Valley. The contract is worth $1.66 million.
The Marin Municipal Water District in Marin County, Calif., has retained a consulting team that includes San Francisco-based Kennedy/Jenks Consultants, Los Angeles-based Dames Moore and Oakland-based William Lettis & Associates to perform an integrated system reliability study for its water supply system. The study addresses the dual concerns of maintaining the system’s reliability in a post-earthquake environment and its ability to provide enough water to fight fires.
Kenner, La., has selected Professional Services Group, Houston, to operate, maintain and manage the city’s 15 mgd municipal wastewater system. The system includes a 183-mile collection system and 5-mgd, 4.75-mgd and 5.25-mgd secondary wastewater treatment facilities.
The Indianapolis Water Co. has selected HNTB, Kansas City, Mo., to provide engineering planning and design services for its new South Well Field Water Treatment Plant. The two-phase project calls for the company to develop a master plan and final design documents for a new 12 mgd water treatment plant with capability to expand to 48 mgd.
Port Arthur, Texas, has hired Black & Veatch, Kansas City, Mo., to design and manage the construction of a state-of-the-art 20-mgd water treatment plant, renovate an existing reservoir and install a new transmission pipeline.
Charlotte, N.C., has awarded a contract to Woolpert, Dayton, Ohio, to develop calibrated hydrologic and hydraulic models for a 53-square-mile area in the McAlpine Creek Watershed in the city and Mecklenburg County.
Denver is using 5,200 feet of 48-inch diameter Vylon direct bury pipe manufactured by Lamson & Sessions, Cleveland, in a pipe replacement project. Parker Excavating completed the project using “poured in place” rather than precast manholes.
Safe at home
Cornell Corrections, Houston, has been awarded a contract by the North Carolina Department of Corrections to operate a 75-bed drug/alcohol treatment center in Durham. The facility will house minimum security inmates.
Chester County, Pa., awarded a $11.7 million contract to E. F. Johnson Co., Burnsville, Minn., to provide a new 800 Mhz radio system for all public safety agencies in the county, replacing existing police, fire and emergency medical service systems. The new system is designed with redundancy coverage so that public safety operations will not be impaired by the loss of any one of 15 radio sites because of severe weather. The system will also include 11 consoles and more than 1,000 mobile and portable radios.
One man’s trash …
The Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance has launched a program to improve collection of recyclables at resorts in the state. The program provides vacationers at lakes in Cass and Douglas counties an opportunity to recycle cans and bottles at 20 resorts participating in the program. Educating visitors to reduce waste is also part of the project. Some county populations triple during vacation time, and waste generation often doubles during summer months.
Alameda County, Calif., has opened a recycling education center in San Leandro to educate school children about resource conservation and recycling. Free to the public, the center includes seven interactive exhibits and highlights the four Rs–reduce, reuse, recycle and rot (or composting), as well as the history of garbage and landfill disposal and information on buying recycled materials. The $150,000 center was funded by a $35,000 grant from the Alameda County Waste Management Authority and a donation by Waste Management of Alameda County.
The city of Cheyenne and Laramie County, Wyo., have completed a comprehensive solid waste management plan. R.W. Beck, Seattle, developed programs for the plan with extensive public involvement at public hearings. Plan programs include collecting and composting of yard waste and recyclables, commercial paper and corrugated paper collection, education and public involvement, special wastes handling and creation of a household hazardous waste facility.
On the superhighway
The U.S. Geological Survey’s Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash., has selected Infotec Development, Portland, Ore., to create digital maps for its geological studies of Pacific Northwest volcanoes. Five digitized geologic maps are the first of their kind for the Mount St. Helens debris avalanche that formed during the first few minutes of the May 18, 1980, eruption. The first project completed by the company was the creation of five digital contour maps for Mt. Baker and Glacier Peak in northern Washington. The second project will create six layers of geologic information for the volcanic landslide at Mount St. Helens, and the third is expected to complete contour layers at 1:24,000 scale for Mount St. Helens as a base for the geologic information.
UGC Consulting, Denver, was awarded contracts for the following projects: Lucas County, Ohio, to assess hardware and software in the auditor’s office; Honolulu Board of Water Supply to develop computer-aided design standards and develop GIS applications; city of Hamilton, Ohio, to provide data conversion support and systems administration and conduct a workshop to evaluate the pilot phase of its GIS project; the city of Colton, Calif., to do a needs analysis for municipal water and sewer divisions; Winnebago County, Wis., to automate zoning and other regulatory land use processes; the city of Kalamazoo, Mich., to enhance geographic and management information systems; Columbus, Ohio, and Evanston, Ill., to build a GIS; Osceola County, Fla., property assessor’s office to design a GIS database; and the city of Riverside, Calif., to provide on-site technical services for the city’s automated design, mapping and engineering project.
Woolpert, Dayton, Ohio, announced it has been awarded the following contracts: the city of Bettendorf, Iowa, to develop and integrate data for a GIS providing services such as monumented control, all components of digital orthophoto production and tax map conversion; Berrien County, Mich., to develop a GIS plan; and the U.S. Geological Survey in California to deliver digital orthophotos for Northern California coastal and inland areas and San Joaquin County. The company also will provide additional mapping under a GIS contract it has with Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
The city of Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada, awarded a contract to Hansen Information Technologies, Sacramento, Calif., to provide an infrastructure management system. The system will provide work order management, job costing and budgeting and other services to the city’s Public Works and Parks and Recreation departments.
Smooth operating
Wheelabrator Technologies, Hampton, N.H., was awarded two multi-year wastewater treatment operations, maintenance and management contracts, one for a 30-mgd regional wastewater treatment facility in Sioux City, Iowa, and the other for a 45-mgd advanced wastewater treatment facility in Fort Dix, N.J. The Sioux City facility includes an industrial pretreatment program, a 5,000-dry tons-per-day biosolids disposal program and a 475-mile-long waste-water collection system. The Fort Dix facility includes 14 pump station and serves Fort Dix and McGuire AFB.
Getting there
Chicago recently selected Rust Environment & Infrastructure, Greenville, S.C.; Kenny Construction, Wheeling, Ill.; and subcontractors LS Transit Systems, R.M. Chin & associates, UBM, G.M. Harston Construction and MOTA Construction, all of Chicago; dsi associates, Hinsdale, Ill.; and O’Brian Associates, Arlington Heights, Ill., to participate in a joint venture that will manage the design and construction of a $775 million, light rail project in the downtown area.
The Connecticut Department of Transportation has selected Parsons Brinckerhoff Construction Services, New York, to provide construction engineering and inspection services for the replacement of the Tomlinson Bridge in New Haven. The project consists of construction of a 270-foot lift span flanked by two tower spans with three approach spans on either side of the tower spans.
Deleuw, Cather & Co., Fairfax, Va., has begun a $3 million study for the expansion of U.S. Route 58 from Hinesville to Stuart, Va. The company will prepare location and environmental evaluations for the addition of two lanes to an existing 36.2-mile section of the two-lane highway.
The Albuquerque, N.M., International Airport has selected Greiner, Inc., Phoenix, Ariz., to provide construction administration and inspection for the reconstruction and lengthening of Runway 3-21, associated taxiways, high-speed runway exit taxiways, airfield lighting, electrical vault expansion and two miles of new service road.
Holmes & Narver, Orange, Calif., has been selected by the San Bernardino Associated Governments to provide bridge and structures design services to accommodate the addition of one High Occupancy Vehicle lane in each direction on 1-10 in San Bernardino County. Total length of the project is 15.8 miles.
Gandhi Engineering, New York, has won a contract from the New York State Department of Transportation to provide construction inspection services for three bridge and highway repair/rehabilitation projects on Staten Island. The combined cost of the repairs, which are scheduled for completion by July 1997, is estimated at $16.5 million.
The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department has awarded a $3.2 million contract to the Civil and Transportation units of Michael Baker Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa., to conduct a location and environment study of U.S. Highway 71 in western Arkansas. The 130-mile corridor is one of the largest projects that make up the congressionally designated high-priority corridor connecting Shreveport, La., to Kansas City, Mo.
Sievers Instruments, Boulder, Colo., was awarded a $1.4 million contract by Krug Life Sciences for the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. The company and Boulder-based Ball Corp.’s Aerospace Systems Division will modify Sievers’ Total Organic Carbon Analyzer for use in a flight experiment aboard the Russian space station, Mir, that will measure the quality of water that is recycled for drinking and other purposes.
The San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board has chosen O’Brien-Kreitzberg, San Francisco, to provide construction management services for the Mission Valley West Light Rail Transit project. Construction of the 6.1-mile-long, $245 million project began in June 1995.
The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority has selected Boston-based Stone & Webster Civil and Transportation Services to manage construction of a new 18-mile water supply tunnel to serve the Greater Boston area. The $380 million deep rock tunnel will be part of the system that conveys water from the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts.
