Last modified Wed., January 16, 2008 - 04:00 PM
Originally created Thursday, January 17, 2008

Mayor tours NAS Jax construction projects

By Sue Brink, NAVFAC Southeast PAO

NAS Jax Commanding Officer Capt. Jack Scorby Jr. greets Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton as Director of Military Affairs Dan McCarthy looks on during the mayor's visit to the base Jan. 7. Photos by Kaylee LaRocque

Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton visited NAS Jacksonville Jan. 7 to tour some of the city's top construction projects. Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southeast is building four projects on the Jacksonville Business Journal's top 28 commercial construction projects of 2007, three of them at NAS Jax.

"It's impressive what's going on here. Initially, I really didn't understand the magnitude of the projects here," the mayor said during his visit to the Navy's largest hangar under construction at NAS Jax. "This kind of investment on this base tells me we are here to stay."

Topping off the list is the $125.9 million state-of-the-art hangar and apron project that will house five P-3C Orion squadrons and a C-130 Hercules logistics squadron. When complete, this hangar will be the largest aircraft hangar in the Navy at a length of three football fields. M.A. Mortensen, out of Minneapolis, Minn., is the contractor for this project, which is well underway and will be ready for squadrons as they start their move to Jacksonville April 2009.

Second on the list is the $74.2 million helicopter hangar which will house five SH-60R "Romeo" helicopter squadrons. This project replaces World War II-era hangars with a state-of-the-art facility that will increase the safety and efficiency of the maintenance efforts on these helicopters. The hangars are being constructed by Walbridge-Aldinger of Detroit and are expected to be completed by June 2009.

Ensign Russell Dotson, project manager with NAS Jacksonville Resident Officer in Charge of Construction, explains the new P-3 hangar construction project to Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton during his visit to the base Jan. 7 as NAS Jacksonville officers and contractors from M.A. Mortensen look on.

Coming in at number 21 is the $15.1 million BRAC 2005 project that realigns NAVFAC Southeast's Charleston, S.C. office with its Jacksonville office. The Haskell Company of Jacksonville has the design and construction contract for the new building which will be ready August 2008.

These three projects may have made the Jacksonville Business Journal list for 2007, but they are not the only projects going on at NAS Jax. NAVFAC Southeast is currently working 70 projects totaling more than $362 million on the base and hundreds more throughout the Southeastern United States and the Caribbean. Projects totaled more than $2 billion for 2007.

"The mayor was interested in the number of local sub-contractors that are used for the projects," said Public Works Officer Cmdr. Chuck Lewis. "There are 200-300 people daily on these two project sites with a high number of local tradesman and laborers."

There are currently 18 sub-contractors from the Jacksonville area working on the P-3 and SH-60 hangar projects totaling $65 million. Many of the contracts for military construction bring work to local businesses here in Jacksonville and throughout the Southeast.

The realignment at NAVFAC Southeast has also created several hundred vacancies in Jacksonville at their headquarters along with many of its Public Works Departments throughout the Southeast. NAVFAC Southeast is actively recruiting professionals from the Jacksonville area along with students and graduates

from area colleges. To learn more about NAVFAC and career opportunities with NAVFAC Southeast visit their Web site at www.navfac.navy.mil and click on Employment, then Career Opportunities at NAVFAC Southeast.

"I'm proud of the fact that this base is experiencing unprecedented growth and we view the military presence as a viable component of our community. We try to be supportive any way we can to help them achieve their goals," Peyton concluded.