Upgrade of 25th Infantry could bring $690 million
By John Duchemin
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Army is proposing to spend up to $690 million on construction in Hawai'i as part of upgrading the 25th Infantry Division (Light) into a larger, more heavily equipped fighting group.
The Army wants to redo roads, training facilities and runways and add barracks and other buildings at several bases in Hawai'i, the division's Col. John Gardner said yesterday.
Upgrades to infrastructure, which would take several years, would be made at Schofield Barracks and other military bases on O'ahu and the Big Island.
The upgrades, part of a larger plan to transform the entire Army, would let the 17,000-soldier division support another 500 soldiers and about 430 extra vehicles, including about 300 armored personnel carriers. The new equipment would be devoted to a beefed-up brigade, a sub-unit of the division, which would be used for rapid response to crises in the Asia-Pacific region.
A broad outline of the proposed upgrades, presented by Gardner to a breakfast meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawai'i, provides some of the first details about the Army's plans to modernize the 25th and include a Hawai'i rapid-strike brigade that would be one of six such teams nationwide.
The Army's plans are still tentative, and the Department of Defense has not formally requested money for the Hawai'i upgrades. Gardner said details including a project timeline and the exact nature of the upgrades have yet to be decided.
The Army, however, has begun a preliminary environmental impact survey in Hawai'i. Defense officials have also briefed local business leaders and Hawai'i representatives in Washington on the plans, including Rep. Neil Abercrombie and staffers for Sen. Dan Inouye.
The $690 million figure is an "optimum" number, reflecting the cost to complete every item on the Army's wish list for Hawai'i, said Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, a member of the House Armed Services subcommittee on military installations and facilities.
Less money could be approved after budget negotiations, Abercrombie said.
But Abercrombie said the Army appears committed to going ahead with the upgrades, and the state should see hundreds of millions in extra military construction money from the project.
"What the Army is saying is, 'Here's the price tag, but we can work well within that amount and still accomplish the task,'" Abercrombie said.
Abercrombie said the money could be used at military bases around the state, including Schofield Barracks on O'ahu and the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island.
He said the Army could request construction money within a year or two. The money must be approved by Congress and President Bush as part of an annual military construction spending bill.
The upgrade would be one of the costliest construction projects to date by the U.S. military in Hawai'i, costing more than the proposed $200-million-plus public-private renovation of Ford Island into a tourist attraction, or the ongoing renovation of Hawai'i military housing that has so far cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The money for the upgrade would be in addition to annual appropriations for military construction in Hawai'i, which typically have ranged between $300 million and $400 million.
Observers said it would be a boon to the local military contracting industry, which includes engineers, architects, construction companies and other firms with thousands of employees.
"This is a tremendous opportunity for primary contractors," said Charlie Ota, vice president of military affairs for the Chamber of Commerce of Hawai'i. "And that means it's a big opportunity for subcontractors and smaller businesses that employ a lot of people in Hawai'i."
