2005 BRAC Quietly Winds Down After Six Years of Construction Innovation

Sept. 15, 2011 marks end of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) six-year Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) 2005 program. Without question, it was the largest infrastructure investment program the U.S. Army has seen since World War II, with roughly $18 billion in military construction projects executed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The BRAC commission made 182 commission recommendations about how to make efficiencies in the Department of Defense to the president, who presented them to Congress and those recommendations became law in September 2005. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) were responsible for executing the vast majority of the recommendations. This particular BRAC was an important part of our military historic transformation and has affected many commands worldwide. BRAC 2005 enabled the military to reshape its infrastructure to support its forces. It repositions our forces, making them more relevant and combat ready for the combatant commander. It also creates doctrinal efficiencies by consolidating schools into centers of excellence and headquarters and other activities into joint or multifunctional installations for efficiency and cost control. The 2005 BRAC also challenged the construction industry like never before. It was by far the largest in scope and complexity than the four prior rounds of facility closure and realignment (1988, 1991, 1993, and 1995). It did, however, provide the industry an opportunity to promote its best practices as the DOD agencies looked to the industry to meet multiple demands, including increased sustainability requirements, utilization of Building Information Modeling (BIM), and a significant change in how contracts are awarded and administered. The focus moved away from traditional bidding to a more integrated, best-value approach. It also encouraged design and construction firms to learn to better work as integrated teams on a larger project delivery team. AGC is proud of its efforts to partner with USACE and NAVFAC on this endeavor and will continue to collaborate and innovate with the DOD construction agencies to meet the needs of our armed forces. For more information, please contact Marco Giamberardino at (703) 837-5325 or giamberm@agc.org.