Fairchild Air Force Base plans to launch about $54.1 million in construction next year, and is seeking funds for another $14.2 million project. All of that work is in addition to more than $260 million in upcoming projects the base announced earlier.

Among those previously announced projects are a $10 million to $15 million training facility at Fairchild's White Bluff property and a $10 million to $15 million fuel line replacement project, both of which are to be bid soon.

Ron Daniels, deputy civil engineer at Fairchild, says military funds were approved recently to pay for the projects, some of which will replace aging, energy-inefficient structures. He says the work also will serve as an economic stimulus.

"These create jobs for folks around here in Spokane," Daniels says.

The projects include a $28 million replacement fitness center, an $11 million support complex for the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) program, and $7.4 million in base dormitory renovations. They also include plans to upgrade the base officers' club, at a cost of $3.6 million, and to construct a $4.1 million maintenance facility for refueling vehicles.

In another project for which Fairchild hasn't yet secured funding, the base hopes to construct a new headquarters for both the 92nd Air Refueling wing commanders and the 141st Air National Guard. That project is anticipated to cost around $14.2 million, Daniels says.

The planned replacement fitness center will have 79,000 square feet of floor space and will replace a 66-year-old building that suffered truss failures during last year's heavy snows, he says. Daniels says the base was able to do some emergency repairs to keep that aging building in use, and has been approved to replace it with one of the same size.

The new structure will be built on a site near the current facility, which then will be demolished. The new building will include a complete fitness center, as well as a SERE water survival training area. That training area will include a swimming pool with a replica airplane fuselage that can be dropped into the pool and used for training exercises. The facility also will include an aquatics center and an indoor track.

The project is being managed by the Seattle district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and bids for design and construction of the $28 million project are expected to be sought in the spring, Daniels says.

Funding also has been approved for the $11 million first phase of a planned SERE support complex on base, he says. That project will involve construction of a 22,000-square-foot building for the base survival school's administration, which currently is located in several aging buildings, including old dormitories. Later, a second phase that would consist of a large auditorium and other teaching space, would be constructed. The Corps of Engineers also is managing that project, which will be advertised for a design-build contract in the spring, Daniels says.

The $7.4 million dormitory remodeling project entails converting four older dormitories on base into four-person apartment complexes to modernize the facilities and reduce isolation of the individual airmen. The dormitories, which currently have private rooms for 50 airmen and a single kitchen and dayroom area in each building, will be converted to four-room apartments that each will have a kitchenette and a living room. Each bedroom will have a private bathroom, and each building will house 40 airmen after the conversions.

The construction will be staggered, with two of the four buildings closed for construction until January of 2011, when the other two buildings will be closed until October of 2011 for reconstruction. The work is being staggered to minimize relocation of the airmen currently housed in the dormitories. During the project, some of the base's senior-ranked airmen will be housed in downtown Spokane.

Zeck Butler Architects PS, of Spokane, is designing the project, and Seattle-based M.J Takisaki Inc. will do the construction.

Meanwhile, the base's 30,000-square-foot officers' club, called Club Fairchild, will be closed next month for renovation. The facility, which is located in a World War II-era wooden warehouse, will get new electrical, fire suppression, heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems installed and will undergo an exterior renovation. M.J. Takisaki has been awarded a $3.6 million contract to do that work, and the Spokane office of Coffman Engineers Inc. designed the project. The renovation is expected to be completed in September, Daniels says.

Another project recently approved for funding in 2010 is the $4.1 million replacement of the base's maintenance shop for its aircraft refueling trucks. The new structure will have 5,000 square feet of floor space and will have two maintenance bays. The Corps of Engineers is the project manager of that project, and expects to seek design-build bids for the project this spring.

The next project at the top of the base's priority list, but not yet funded, is an about $14.2 million project to replace the base's main headquarters facility. The current structure was constructed in the 1940s, Daniels says, and wasn't designed for the amount of computer equipment in use there now.

The replacement building would be located across the street from the current facility, and would be about 10,000 square feet smaller than the older 38,000-square-foot building, but would be more efficient, Daniels says. That project, when funded, would be managed by the Corps of Engineers, he says.

Meanwhile, the base has completed the design phase of a previously announced $50 million to $100 million project to reconstruct its 13,900-foot-long runway. Depending on funding, it hopes to seek construction bids for that project in the coming summer, Daniels says.

The runway project is part of about $260 million in work already announced, which also includes a concrete replacement project, for which M.J. Takisaki has been awarded a $2.7 million contract; a $10 million to $15 million SERE training facilities project locate at Fairchild's White Bluff location, north of Airway Heights; a $10 million to $15 million fuel line replacement project; a $29.4 million Armed Forces Reserve Center on base; a $5.3 million building for the base's physiological training unit; a recently completed $4 million remodel of a large warehouse building; a $2 million to $3 million renovation of the dental clinic; and about $3 million in energy conservation improvements; a $16.8 million update to the former base hospital completed earlier this year; along with the ongoing $65 million base housing upgrade and privatization project.