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thedrifter
11-06-07, 07:44 AM
Published on Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Labor availability haunts military

By Henry Cuningham
Military editor


The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is worried about getting enough civilian construction workers for military building projects in coming years.

“We are concerned about saturation, not just market saturation but labor saturation,” said Maj. Gen. Bo Temple, director of military projects for the Army Corps of Engineers in Washington, D.C. “Will there be enough humans to actually accomplish all this work?”

Temple made his comments Monday at the Military Construction Summit at the Airborne & Special Operations Museum. Hundreds of businessmen attended the sessions.

Fort Bragg has about $2 billion in construction planned for the next five to six years, said Greg Bean, director of public works. Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base at Jacksonville is adding a special operations headquarters and thousands of Marines as part of the military’s initiative to increase ground forces.

Nationwide, the Defense Department has billions of dollars of construction planned for Base Closure and Realignment moves for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. A recent addition to requirements is the decision to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps.

The cool off in the housing market may make the construction industry more able to absorb the military projects, he said.

“What we need are good subcontractors and highly skilled workers,” Bean said. “We are having delays in construction projects as we speak because we don’t have as many skilled laborers as we need.”

Diego Martinez, chief of Army programs for the Savannah District of the Army Corps of Engineers, said the biggest concern is “construction resources.” The Southeast will see $5billion in military construction in the next five years, he said.

“Back in the mid-’90s when we were building the new hospital here at Fort Bragg — we were building a couple of barracks and a couple of motor pools and some more facilities — we had a point that there was actually competition between contractors trying to get labor. Multiply that by three, and that’s what we are going to be facing in the next four years.”
Military editor Henry Cuningham can be reached at cuninghamh@fayobserver.com or 486-3585.

Ellie