Last week at the submarine base, construction workers were putting the finishing touches on a new building for storage and maintenance of cranes. The $4 million project has kept them busy for the past seven months. The lead contractor, Mortenson Construction, hired local subcontractors from Mystic, Waterford and East Lyme...What do you think? Assuming that some sort of infrastucture improvement stimulus bill will pass this winter, is this a better use of taxpayer dollars than road and bridge improvements?
...Work on a new $9.3 million building for the Submarine Learning Center and a new $11.9 million waterfront operations center will soon get under way. Two more contracts, for a $46 million pier and an $11 million indoor firing range to replace the current outdoor range, will be awarded later this year...
... About 35 older, excess buildings, totaling 400,000 square feet, will be torn down as part of an $11 million demolition project that finishes early next year. Two barracks could be taken down as early as next month.
Smaller infrastructure improvements are going on throughout the base, and a new submarine escape trainer, a $13 million project, is almost complete.
Millions more could be spent on the base this year if funding for military construction is included in the new administration's stimulus plan, aimed at bolstering the U.S. economy...
...There have been preliminary discussions between Capt. Mark S. Ginda, the base commander, and Defense Department officials about whether any of the base's projects, proposed for future years, could start earlier.
Additional piers, a renovated fitness center and new weapons handling and storage areas top Ginda's wish list, but it is too early in the congressional debate about the package to say whether any of those projects will come to fruition ahead of schedule.
Wider piers are being built so Virginia-class submarines can fit on both sides and cranes and trucks can work on one submarine without interfering with operations on the other side of the pier...
SUBASE NLON Beneficiary Of Government Spending
Check out this article from The New London Day on all the recent and planned infrastucture improvements at Submarine Base New London in Groton. Excerpts:
