CDM Expansion of Guam’s base exchange is just the beginning of planned work there.

In what industry observers say was faster than expected, the U.S. Navy chose a team July 8 to manage design and construction of the military's estimated $15-to-20 billion construction expansion program on the Pacific island of Guam. Teams bidding for contract had only delivered presentations to the Naval Facilities Engineering Command in Honolulu June 20.

Pacific Program-Design Management Services, a joint venture led by Parsons Corp., Pasadena, Calif. and including AECOM Technology Corp., Los Angeles, with Earth Tech, Long Beach, Calif., was selected for the “program support” task-order contract to manage architect-engineering and construction services for the Guam expansion effort. Separately, AECOM is now in the process of acquiring Earth Tech. The contract, which still must be negotiated with the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, could be worth up to $100 million over the next five years.

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U.S. Navy

The buildup of military facilities and infrastructure on the 200-sq-mile island follows the Dept. of Defense's intent by 2015 to move thousands of Marines and civilians from Japan and elsewhere to Guam, and to boost its strategic importance in the Pacific region. The planned move of troops from the Japanese island of Okinawa is part of a treaty signed with Japan in 2005.

Industry competition for the award was strong. The three other shortlisted competitors included: Louis Berger Group, with McDonough Bolyard Peck, consultant Booz Allen and Hawaii-based architect-engineer Group 70; a joint venture of Bechtel Group and CH2M Hill Cos. Ltd.; and Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.

Spokespersons also confirm that a team of Parsons Brinckerhoff and Shaw Group Inc. and one of AMEC and PBS&J, with consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers, bid but did not make the short list.

In addition to new housing and base facilities to be built, the Navy also plans to enlarge pier facilities to host aircraft carriers at Apra Harbor while the Army plans a new ballistic missile site. The Air Force will also expand Andersen Air Base on the island's north end. The island's civilian infrastructure is also limited, with island officials already seeking construction funds from the U.S. Transportation Dept. and other agencies.

One executive of a competing firm speculates that the huge scope of the work and its fast-track deadlines may prompt NAVFAC to hire additional firm managers for work contained in the program support contract. That could include separate design management contractors for ports and airports, and a separate construction management contractor, he says.

Guamıs sensitive ecology has boosted environmental-management concerns. “We will learn a lot of lessons on Guam,” Col. David Spasojevich, chief of staff for the militaryıs Joint Guam Program Office (JGPO), told an industry group in May, noting a doubling of military environmental staff. A draft environmental impact statement is anticipated by spring and a final one in 2010. Leading the team now performing the mandated environmental work is The Environmental Co., tktk, tktk, with Earth Tech and EDAW. The latter firm is also owned by AECOM. A final master plan and construction start is expected by then but industry observers are skeptical the program can keep to that schedule.

While Japan could provide as much as 60% of Guam funding and is to oversee public-private approaches to housing and utility construction, the countryıs resistance to using design-build could be an obstacle. Also challenging will be securing adequate labor, 90% of which must be imported. But JGPO Executive Director David F. Bice, a retired Marine Corps major general, says President Bush recently signed an H2B visa waiver for Filipino labor. “We are looking at projects to propose to Congress in February for fiscal 2010 construction,” he says.