SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Brigadier General Mark Toy, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers South Pacific Division, visited military construction projects at three installations and met with Regulatory staff during a three-day trip to Utah on March 29-31, 2016.
The Division Engineer’s tour began with overviews of active and recently completed projects at Hill Air Force Base, including an F-35A hangar and Aircraft Maintenance Unit (AMU).
“It’s great to have General Toy see completed projects like the F-35 hangar, which is helping our nation’s airmen achieve mission success,” said Arianna Raymundo, project manager for the Sacramento District.
Contracts for a new flight simulator and two more F-35 hangars at the base are scheduled to be awarded this June.
Later that day, after touching down at Dugway Proving Ground, the team examined two test facilities at the nation’s designated range for chemical and biological defense testing and countering weapons of mass destruction.
Crews are updating the Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning units at the installation’s Combined Chemical Test Facility to keep test agents contained and never reach the outside atmosphere.
“The district is also nearing completion on construction at the Life Science Test Facility which is the largest facility in the U.S. equipped to test aerosolized biosafety agents,” said Nathan Iwata, senior project engineer with the Sacramento District. “Soon this state-of-the-art facility will house multiple vapor locks to prevent cross-contamination.”
As he flew over Utah’s terrain between the installations, Toy was briefed on regulatory projects including the Narrows Dam, which may require mitigation for more than 70 acres of wetlands and the West Davis Corridor, a 20-mile-long highway located in the Great Salt Lake area.
Toy met with staff from the Bountiful Regulatory Office to discuss those and other projects within the area.
Providing Toy with first-hand knowledge of the different demands on the area whether it be developments adjacent to the lake, mineral mining operations or conservation of fish and wildlife habitats in the ecosystem was a vital part of this tour, according to Jason Gipson, branch chief for the Bountiful Regulatory Office.
“The whole Great Salt Lake ecosystem is an important area for both the natural environment and significant economic benefits for the state,” said Gipson. “With a visual perspective, [Toy] can better understand the different pressures and decisions our regulators make each day.”
Finally, Toy got to see the Facilities Sustainment, Restoration and Modernization program at Tooele Army Depot, getting up close with the depot’s $9.6 million solar array that will bring the installation to net-zero energy consumption.
His visit wasn’t limited to Corps-related activities either.
Toy met with six junior officers stationed at Fort Carson, spoke to 75 cadets at Brigham Young University about leadership and appeared as a guest speaker at the 299th Brigade Engineer Battalion Dining Out event.