Battle stations
Fort Polk course cleared, contoured for digital battle area

By Martin W. Schwartz

A training ground 5 mi. south of Kisatchie in the Kisatchie National Forest is shaping up to become one of only a handful in the country.

Tug Hill Construction, which is based in Felt Mills, N.Y., is sculpting Fort Polk's Digital Multi-purpose Battle Area Course (DMPBAC) out of 6,000 acres of Louisiana countryside. Polyengineering Inc. of Dothan, Ala., designed the course for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Tug Hill recently completed a similar training facility in Fort Knox, Ky. The contractor was awarded the contract for the Fort Polk project in September 2003 and site clearing began March 26.

Then the rains came.

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"Locally, we had three times the average rainfall," said James R. Didas, jobsite superintendent with Tug Hill. "I think we worked 12 days out of 24 in June." Working overtime has allowed the crew to make up for lost time, with earthmoving operations nearly 75 percent complete in September.

The first step in the $29.2 million battle course was to clear 1,100 acres and trim 2,300 acres of the Kisatchie National Forest needed for the project. Fort Polk, located about 20 mi. from the training area, maintains 60,000 acres in the forest for its use.

A 20-mi. road was paved through the 6,000 acres that will ultimately make up the training ground.

When completed, the course will be a state-of-the-art training facility for the Army's "Stryker," a 19-ton wheeled armored vehicle capable of sustained speeds of 60 mph that can be deployed by C-130 aircraft and be combat ready upon arrival. The 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment of Fort Polk is one of six Interim Brigade Combat Teams to use the new vehicle.

Because the Stryker will be shooting at targets up to a mile away, line of sight is imperative to the construction of the training course.

"They have given firing points and what's called a 'firing matrix' that designates which targets they can see from which locations," Didas said.

These special requirements mean that some hillsides must be "shaved" away and flat areas raised. As a result, more than 1.25 million yds. of ground have been moved at the site by as many as 12 tractors and pans.

Didas equated the earthmoving to "sculpting" the topography to create realistic simulations of a variety of terrains. All of the excavated earth was utilized in other areas of the jobsite.

Erosion control at the jobsite has also been significant, said Kate Mangan, project manager for Tug Hill. About 15,000 timbers were delivered to the site from companies in Texas and Mississippi to be used in retaining walls.

"Piles are driven into the ground and the timbers were stacked behind them and backfilled with dirt," Mangan said. "This created raised areas with earth and berm on one side and the electronically controlled target on the other." The downrange area includes 10 moving infantry targets, 215 stationary infantry targets, moving armor targets, 50 stationary armor targets, 11 battle positions and 10 machine-gun bunkers.

The project also requires crushed rock tank trails; a service road; installation of several low water crossings; installation of primary electric, hard-wired camera towers; fiber-optic communication system; septic fields sewage lagoon connection; and installation of water lines, storm drainage systems and a number of permanent sediment ponds.

Didas said the low water crossings are unique.

"They've got large arch pipes in the design," he added. "Five are designed for water overtopping the structure. Water will actually build up a bigger flow than the pipe can handle and the water will go over the top of the road."

JCF Bridge and Concrete of Austin, Texas, provided the steel pipes in sizes from 12 to 32 ft. in diameter.

"They're basically large culvert pipes," Didas said. "We're doing the excavation. The fabrication and installation are being done by JCF."

A cutting-edge computerized control center is also being constructed so the Army can control troop movements on several fronts and send information in real time to one central command.

"They can train on this range and train on the range in Kentucky and send all the information to the control building at Fort Hood (in Texas)," Didas said. "The person sitting at Fort Hood can control and command the operations in all three locations."

To achieve that level of technology, about 258,000 lin. ft. of fiber-optic cables will be run throughout the course.

"Some of those cables have more than 100 fibers in them, so there's a tremendous amount of fiber optics involved," Didas said.

Dean Rypkema, project manager for Nelcorp of Endicott, N.Y., which is performing the fiber-optic and electrical installations, said the installation of the fiber optics is similar to those done on other military ranges.

"We'll dig deep trenches, drop it in the ground and cover it up," Rypkema said. "We don't expect anything different than what we've done before. It's just a big 6,000-acre playground." Installation is scheduled to begin in early to mid-November.

Telephone communications require 25,000 ft. of copper wire, and 228,000 lineal ft. of high voltage cable will be needed for power.

Other subcontractors include American Forest Products of Anococo, clearing contractor; Camo Contractors of Vidalia, earthwork contractor; and Westerchil Construction of Alexandria, building subcontractor.

Didas said strict requirements and guidelines, particularly in the safety area, must be followed for the government project. The corps has its own health and safety manual, and Tug Hill had to write its own health and safety plan before work could begin.

"Anyone who wants to go onsite has to go through safety indoctrination," Didas added.

Because the site incorporates an existing live-fire range, Tug Hill has to coordinate around scheduled exercises.

"It's not like they're shooting at us or doing anything, but part of the range falls in their safety buffer," Didas said. "We have to stay behind a certain line, which on this job is called the 480 line (an Army coordinate gridline)."

Since the area is being used as a tank training range, the ground is being cleared by Tennessee-based EOD Technologies to remove any live ordinance that might have remained on the grounds.

"They go through and do a surface sweep to remove the unexploded ordinance prior to us performing work," Didas said.

He added that there are currently 75 workers onsite and the project should be completed on schedule by next fall.

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For additional info on initiatives at Fort Polk, go to: http://www.jrtc-polk.army.mil/