Pouring Concrete is Non-Routine in Battle Zones

Tech. Sgt. John Foster sits in a truck on an active runway at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, and simply covers his ears as a C-130 Hercules races by just yards away and takes off into the blue.

Foster is not lost. As the cargo plane heads over Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountain range, Foster climbs out of his truck, calls the control tower and rounds up his "sidelined" work crew to start pouring concrete again. Foster is the runway repair project manager assigned to the 455th Expeditionary Operations Group at Bagram, Afghanistan.

This "game on, game off" scene has become routine for Foster -- deployed from the 18th Civil Engineer Squadron at Kadena AB, Japan -- and other civil engineers here who will work for the next six months as part of a $2.3 million airfield fix that is literally being done between takeoffs and landings.

Normal FAA Spacing? Not Here.

"It’s an adrenaline rush every time an aircraft passes us," said Capt. Chris Fuller, officer in charge of the 455th EOG’s civil engineer element. Fuller is also deployed from the 18th CES. "We are routinely 90 feet from (A-10 Thunderbolt IIs) taking off and landing on the active taxiway at normal speeds. Nowhere else in the world would you operate heavy equipment next to aircraft traveling at 130 knots or whatever they land at."

...and Your Work Area May Blow Up...

Operating heavy equipment while aircraft pass just feet away is not the only hazard construction crews face as they replace a 2,000-foot section of the 9,800-foot runway. "There are massive quantities of (unexploded ordnance), abandoned munitions and mine fields right next to where my crews are working," said Fuller.

In mid-April, emergency workers called for help when a soldier stepped on a land mine near the opposite end of the runway and lost part of his leg. Because of such hazards, stepping off the pavement to let aircraft pass is not an option for workers. "We’re very reluctant to leave the tarmac because (the) explosive ordnance disposal team (keeps) finding mines and (unexploded ordnance) in the infields near the runway," said Foster.

But while the dangers in this war zone are clear, Fuller said his crews also fully understand that the work they are doing is vital to combat air operations. "This is a huge undertaking," he said. "The section we are replacing is the most critical because it’s where most of the aircraft landing at this base touch down."

'Safety' here would give OSHA an instant coronary... Yet, it's safe enough.

Cruising down the runway in a Toyota Land Cruiser, Master Sgt. Stephen Batherson, superintendent of the CE element, described the condition of the runway as he juggled the steering wheel and a radio to maintain contact with the control tower. "There’s no doubt this is the worst runway in the AOR," said Batherson, deployed from the 18th CES. He also acknowledged that the work his 19-man crew is tackling at this austere Army airfield 25 miles north of Kabul is just short of mammoth. "Obviously it’s tough because we are constantly working around airflow. At any other base they’d close the runway for this type of work, but here we can’t because the combat mission here doesn’t take a break, and the project needs to be done within 180 days," he said.

Fuller said that a Red Horse unit replaced 500 concrete slabs in about six months. Current plans call for coalition crews to replace 2,750 slabs in the same amount of time.

Work on the airfield includes more than repair of the active runway, according to Fuller. Work is also being done on several helicopter-parking areas, and a taxiway expansion is also in the works. The additional labor on the project is coming from the Army Corps of Engineers and military civil engineers from Slovakia, Thailand and Korea.

"Working with coalition partners has created some communications challenges," Fuller said. "But our (noncommissioned officers) have bridged the barriers there and are working cohesively to get the mission done."

Trying to get their work on the runway done, Foster’s crew stops again. As trucks and crews with equipment scurry to the runway’s paved edge, Foster looked to the sky and said: "Gotta stop. Here comes another plane."

[Thanks to Tech. Sgt. Adam Johnston, 455th Expeditionary Operations Group Public Affairs --ed.]

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