The road in front of Camp Red Cloud will be widened to eight lanes to relieve heavy traffic, requiring up to $11 million of reconstruction inside the base. (Seth Robson / Stars and Stripes)
CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea — Uijongbu City is funding an $11 million construction project at Camp Red Cloud so they can widen the road outside the base from four to eight lanes, officials confirmed last week.
Edward Harris, Directorate of Public Works director for U.S. military camps in Uijongbu, said negotiations on the project began in 1995.
About 70,000 vehicles pass in front of the camp daily, according to local news reports, and the traffic bottlenecks at the camp’s front gate. According to the Chosun Ilbo, the construction project will move Red Cloud’s fence back 45 to 60 feet.
Harris said a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers feasibility study determined that five major camp facilities would have to be demolished and rebuilt.
The 2nd Infantry Division Band building will be rebuilt as a two-story structure near the golf course’s ninth hole at a cost of $2.8 million; a Headquarters Headquarters Company civil operations facility will be rebuilt at a cost of $1.8 million next to the Commanding General’s Mess; an Army and Air Force Exchange Service gas station will be moved next to the commissary at a cost of $1.5 million; and the bus and taxi station also will be moved next to the Commissary at a cost of $900,000.
The biggest ticket item will be rebuilding the front gate at a cost of $3 million. The recently refurbished entrance, including a new guard post and a concrete wall covered in ornamental rocks, will be demolished, Garrison Commander Lt. Col. William Huber said.
The new gate will have two-way traffic, pop-up barriers and barriers to slow traffic, he said.
“Any time we build entrances there is a standard installation design we have to construct to. It will be a much different entrance,” he said.
The project is good news for both Camp Red Cloud and Uijongbu City, he said.
“Any time you improve your traffic system you increase economic capability,” he said.
Ninety percent of the construction project design work is complete and work is likely to start in late fall or early winter, Harris said.
“All the funds are coming from Uijongbu City. The Far Eastern U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be the project manager and will handle the bid process. The actual construction will be done by South Korean contractors,” he said.
