Sundt Construction, Inc.has been awarded a $24.2 million contract to build an auxiliary landing field at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma that will be used in training F-35B Joint Strike Fighter pilots prior to their deployment.
The project includes construction of an air operation facility; aircraft direct fueling station, maintenance shelter and vertical take-off and landing pad. Sundt, serving as the general contractor, also will build two separate aircraft carrier-deck replicas, taxiways, fire and rescue shelters, paved access roads and will perform other site improvements as part of the project. Construction began in June 2012 and is scheduled to conclude in June 2013.
The contract was issued by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, in San Diego, Calif. Sundt also recently built an F-35B flight simulator facility at MCAS.
Over the past four years, Sundt has performed three similar airfield paving projects at military installations across the country, said Sundt Project Manager Frank Bejarano. “We are privileged to have the opportunity to build these two projects at MCAS, which will be used to support the Marines and their training,” he said.
While details of the dynamic effort are changing daily, “the future of Yuma is a lot closer than people may believe or hear,” said Lt. Col. Dwight De Jong, the JSF site manager in an interview with the Yuma Sun.
