Workers recently completed installing various anti-terrorism barriers and other security devices at the Doolittle Gate complex on Osan Air Base, South Korea. (Franklin Fisher / S&S)
OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — Doolittle Gate here has been reopened to traffic after workers completed toughening its anti-terrorism devices.
The reopening marks the end of a $2.85 million security upgrade that began in September 2003 and saw the installation of pop-up barriers, drop-arm gates and other improvements to three gates at this air base 48 miles south of Korea’s Demilitarized Zone.
Doolittle Gate is the base’s chief entry point for contractors, buses, and other large vehicles; its reopening means smoother traffic flow for such vehicles, said Capt. Jeff Lin, 51st Civil Engineer Squadron construction management chief.
Officials closed Doolittle Gate July 17. Workers installed pop-up wedges, barriers that spring from the roadway to thwart ramming attempts; a drop-arm gate for inbound traffic; about 30 concrete barriers near the roadway; and a closed-circuit television that helps base security personnel monitor the gate area.
Workers also enlarged the visitor center parking lot, Lin said. “Before … you couldn’t manage even ten vehicles. Now, there’s spots for twenty.”
Additional parking spots also have been created at points around the visitor center. Brighter lighting was installed. And workers spruced up the “arch” that may be the complex’s most prominent feature in the public’s eyes.
“The arch was renovated, repainted and all that,” said Lin, so visitors receive “a better first impression of the base ... as opposed to what was there before — an old, kind of dilapidated arch that was falling apart.”
Traffic lanes were re-ordered to create three inbound lanes, one more than before the project began.
As rain fell Wednesday afternoon, airmen on Doolittle Gate security duty checked ID cards for a continual flow of in-bound vehicles, including buses, trucks, and passenger cars.
“It’s controlled the flow of traffic a little bit more so we can expedite,” said Airman 1st Class Robert Glowacki, 20, of Buffalo, N.Y., an entry controller with the 51st Security Forces Squadron. “Before, the traffic used to be so congested that it would be backed up to the bridge.”
Also upgraded were the Main and Beta gates, which reopened in June and July respectively.
At the Main Gate workers put in a roadside search turn-off, a new brick wall, a new, more spacious guard station and a search dog kennel. They also rebuilt a stairway and installed other improvements including pop-up wedges, tire shredders, barrier posts and new landscaping.
At Beta Gate, they installed a new roadside turn-off, dog kennel, guard station, swing gates, chain-link fencing and landscaping.
