Busiest
airfield in Marine Corps slated for $145 million in improvements
by Michelle Volkmann, Sun Staff Writer
The busiest airfield in the Marine Corps will be
getting a nearly $145 million face lift in the next five years.
For the first time in its history, Marine Corps Air
Station Yuma became No. 1 in air traffic control counts in 2004.
“This means we do more flight operations here in
Yuma than any other airfield in the Department of the Navy,” said Lt. Col. Ed
Sexton, MCAS operations officer.
With 290,000 total air traffic counts, the airfield
had a 41 percent increase in military aircraft and a 42 percent in civilian
aircraft last year.
Last year, 115 units came to train at MCAS Yuma.
Before 2003, an average of 42 units per year trained at Yuma’s 2.8 million
acres of bombing and aviation ranges.
This increase operational tempo has happened for
several reasons, said Col. James Cooney, commanding officer at MCAS Yuma.
“Our operational tempo has skyrocketed because Yuma has a great reputation as a training location,” he said. “We have great flying weather. We have a very supportive community and we have the best ranges in the country, that happen to look remarkably like a province in Iraq.”
It’s not only Marine Corps pilots, Sexton said.
“We have become a very hot item for all of DoD
(Department of Defense),” he said.
But all this activity has taken its toll on the
infrastructure and major improvements need to be made, said Cmdr. Bill Sheedy,
director of installation and logistics for MCAS Yuma.
Between 2006 and 2010, $42 million worth of
improvements to the shared spaces of the airport and $27.5 million specifically
for military are planned.
The largest project, with an estimated price tag of
$25 million, will extend one of the runways by 3,000 feet.
Right now at the north end, there are overlapping
runways. One runway is primarily used by small airplanes and the other for
high-speed aircraft.
The project is aimed at “minimizing the opportunity
for human failure,” Cooney said.
“It’s primarily a safety concern,” he said. “By
chopping off that 3,000 feet on the approach and extending it, it will actually
improve aircraft separations, safety margins, making it a much more efficient
facility to run for everybody.”
The other project will be $27.5 million to construct
and renovate the hangars so everyone is “up to current standards,” Sheedy said.
This project is on hold until the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) list is
released this month, Sheedy said.
“We want to make sure that what we do is the right
thing for not only what we have currently, but also what is going to project
for this airfield and whatever types of aircraft are going to operate here,” he
said. “A lot of that is tied to BRAC. We have no idea what’s coming with BRAC.”
For example, if a different type of aircraft was
assigned to MCAS Yuma, new hangars may need to be built.
There is another $5 million for storm water
retention basins and $1.5 million to move and improve the fire training pit for
the Crash, Fire and Rescue crew.
The rotating beacon, which is 62 years old, will
finally be replaced. This is long overdue, Sexton said.
“For years and years, the light source on that thing
was so dim that you couldn’t see it,” he said. “I started flying here in ’93
and I didn’t think there was a rotating beacon here. Two years ago, we
increased the light power on it.”
These planning improvements come on the heels of
several construction projects dating back to 1997.
Between 1997 and 2002, the Department of Defense
“pumped” $27.6 million of funding into the airfield, including the 14-story
tower.
Construction on the exterior of the $7.2 million
tower is finished. But they are waiting for the radar equipment to be
installed. It is expected to be in operation by 2006, about two years after the
original timeline.
The current tower was constructed in the 1950s.
In the last years, $25.9 in general improvements to
the airfield has been paid by the Defense Department. Another $48.5 million,
including $25 million for the new combat aircraft loading area (CALA), went to
construction.
This area is where the aircraft is loaded with
explosives. It will have 35 fixed wing aircraft and 14 helicopters. The current
CALA, which was built in the 1980s, has 22 spots.
In March 2006, when the area is fully operational,
it will be one of the largest in the Marine Corps.
All these improvements are designed to make the air
station better, Sexton said.
“We are trying to make it easier on our air traffic
controllers and a safer environment to fly in,” he said.
By
the Numbers
$145 million: Planned improvements to the airfield
290,000: Air traffic control counts in 2004
115: Visiting units training at MCAS Yuma
62: Age of rotating beacon on the airfield
14 Stories: Height of new control tower
11 Stories: Height of the current control tower
This
article was first published in The Yuma Sun newspaper.
