Ambitious Aviano 2000 program
enters 'heavy construction stage'
By Kent Harris, Stars
and Stripes
Kent Harris / Stars and Stripes
One of the most anticipated construction projects in Aviano 2000 is the new school, which
will provide education for kindergartners through 12th graders. |
AVIANO AB, Italy — It doesn’t take long for a visitor to this Italian-owned,
American-run air base to see that construction workers must be busy.
Just about everywhere, someone is building something. And, for those in the know, there
are plenty of other places where, with a little imagination, other structures start
fitting into place.
"Everybody wants to know what’s going on with Aviano 2000," said Col.
Gary C. LaGassey, the man tasked to lead the large team overseeing the project Aviano
2000. "It’s a big project."
LaGassey actually may have understated the scope of the project — mammoth, huge or
colossal might be more appropriate.
Of course, with a budget of more than $500 million — including about $325 million
from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — one would expect to get more than a
nice planter or two.
Thus far, Americans in Aviano have seen a new commissary and base exchange complex open
and dozens of other projects finished. In fact, 36 of the 88 NATO-funded projects are
done.
That doesn’t mean, however, that Aviano 2000, a master plan of sorts, is
completed.
"We’re going into the heavy construction phase of it now," LaGassey
said.
Navy Cmdr. David Kelley, who is overseeing part of Aviano 2000, estimated that the
project is about a third of the way completed. It’s still keeping a small army of
people behind the scenes — planners, purchasers, negotiators and others — very
busy.
Earlier this week, the Navy’s Naples-based Engineering Field Activity
Mediterranean awarded an $8 million contract to construct a child development center,
theater and post office next to the completed shopping mall near the flightline.
Kelley said the facilities will open in about two years. Construction should begin this
fall.
The base’s hospital, which is under a $15 million overhaul, eventually will
incorporate the existing medical and dental facilities in Area 1. It will be completed in
several phases. Construction should start in late October and take about three years to
complete.
Contracts for seven other projects should be awarded by Sept. 30, Kelley said.
And there’s plenty more after that. The United States will fund almost twice as
many projects as NATO, although the price tag for those ($178 million) isn’t as high.
There have been some bumps along the way: The contractor building the school
essentially went bankrupt and had to be replaced. Work on the club and temporary lodging
had to be taken over by a different contractor after the military decided the first
wasn’t honoring its contract.
"A project this scope always has its challenges," LaGassey said.
The final result, perhaps finished sometime around 2005 or 2006, will have each of the
base’s several areas serve as "functional centers."
Area 1, the former home of the commissary and post exchange, will feature a combined
K-12 school, the hospital, a youth center and the chapel. Area 2, separated from Area 1 by
just a narrow street, will house dorms, a dining area, a gym and a professional military
education center. About a mile away, recreational facilities compose most of Area D.
Farther down the road in Area F — more commonly known as the flightline —
dorms and temporary housing are rapidly rising near the main shopping complex. Other
completed facilities are scattered around the area, fairly easy to spot because of a
common, distinctive style that differs from existing buildings.
Some of those buildings have been around since U.S. forces first came to Aviano in
1956.
Aviano, LaGassey says, didn’t receive a lot of the attention it deserved for
years, partly because "the Italians always thought we were going to close up the next
year."
Because of the base’s strategic importance — housing the only American
fighter wing south of the Alps — and all the money spent on the project, those fears
can probably be put to rest.
The same can’t be said for the construction workers.
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