The Military Engineer l No. 66267 Privatized Military Family Housing By James R. Dravet The ?rst DOD joint-service super-base site presented unique challenges for the project team tasked with providing housing for the families stationed there. T he McGuire Air Force Base (AFB), N.J., and Fort Dix, N.J., military family housing privatization project is a joint-service initiative with the U.S. Air Force administering the project as executive agent. The goal of this super-base project is to provide military families access to safe, secure, affordable and well-maintained quality housing in a military community. The project consists of approximately 1,650 units of new housing, infrastructure to support the new neighborhoods, and demolition of existing units and facili- ties as necessary to make space avail- able for construction. There is also a renovation component to the overall scope of construction. The scope of new housing is spread across twelve parcels, six within McGuire AFB and six within Fort Dix. Current hous- ing requirements and relocation plans required that the parcels be developed consecutively and that units be made available for occupancy as quickly as possible to support additional or sub- sequent parcel availability for develop- ment. In that both McGuire AFB and Fort Dix are key components of the De- partment of Defenses (DOD) support to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, this project became an essential quality of life initiative for the soldiers, airmen and other DOD personnel supporting the Global War on Terror (GWOT). A Unique Response Breaking down just the housing com- ponent of this project is impressive from a residential development perspective. There are 1,650 units of new construc- tion to be completed in less than four years. With an average of 22 work days per month, the team will need to con- struct more than one new residence ev- ery day for the next four years. The project also is unique in that the base, the ?rst DOD super-base, will incorporate Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard operations. The plan for develop- ing the base military family housing is also a relatively new concept: a public- private venture (PPV). An alternative to traditional military construction, a PPV allows the government to better lever- age available taxpayer dollars and other resources. Combining PPV and the super-base concept required a unique response. Owner-developer United Communities LLC, project architect Woolpert Inc. and general contractor Sundt Construction Inc. were awarded the opportunity to work with the Air Force and Army to de- velop, design and construct the entirely new super-base community. Quickly determining that traditional construc- tion techniques would not suf?ce, the team identi?ed three critical project Design & Construction The public-private venture responsible for constructing more than 1,600 housing units at McGuire AFB and Fort Dix over the next four years has adopted several innovative project delivery approaches. Photo courtesy Sundt Construction Inc.