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Money for BRAC construction allocated, WPAFB officials say

Construction is taking place at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as the Air Force Research Laboratory's Sensors Directorate building is being expanded.

Staff photo by Ron Alvey Construction is taking place at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as the Air Force Research Laboratory's Sensors Directorate building is being expanded.

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The Air Force Research Laboratory's Sensors Directorate building is being expanded. The construction program taking place at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is the biggest since World War II.

Staff photo by Ron Alvey The Air Force Research Laboratory's Sensors Directorate building is being expanded. The construction program taking place at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is the biggest since World War II.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Staff photo by Ron Alvey

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 7:50 PM Wednesday, February 3, 2010

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — The Air Force already has been allocated all the money needed to complete the $332 million construction program required to meet the legal deadline of Sept. 15, 2011, for relocating programs from other military bases to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, base officials and supporters said.

The infusion of research programs and a net gain of about 1,100 jobs for the base is central to the Dayton region’s hopes for economic development during upcoming years. The construction program is Wright-Patterson’s biggest since World War II.

The government has allocated the construction money during the immediate past fiscal years, so the funding doesn’t depend on the political wrangling that just began this week in Washington over President Obama’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that will begin Oct. 1, according to the Air Force and the Dayton Development Coalition, a supporter of the base.

“Everything is on track,” Joe Zeis, chief strategist and a vice president of the coalition, said Wednesday, Feb. 3.

The 88th Air Base Wing at Wright-Patterson expects to break ground this week for a religious education facility in the base’s Area B. Base officials said it will be the last building to be constructed with funding specifically appropriated to carry out the 2005 base realignment and closure (BRAC) decisions that mandate relocation of aerospace medicine and sensors research programs from bases in other states to Wright-Patterson.

The BRAC relocations were intended to reduce the costs of operating bases across the Defense Department and create “centers of excellence” within the system, including aerospace medicine and sensors R&D at Wright-Patterson.

The biggest project in the base’s BRAC construction, the $194.5 million Human Performance Wing complex, is on or slightly ahead of schedule to be finished in February 2011, with occupancy in May 2011, 88th Air Base Wing officials said. It is to be home of the 711th Human Performance Wing, with responsibility for aerospace medicine, science and technology missions.

A joint venture of Butt Construction Co., Dayton and Archer Western Contractors Ltd., Atlanta, is constructing the Human Performance Wing complex.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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