Afghanistan Ministry of Defense facility nears completion

  • Published
  • By Susan Scheuer
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas --  Construction of the $228.5 million Afghanistan Ministry of Defense headquarters and garrison complex is nearing completion, after seven years, more than five million man hours and countless hurdles.

The road to construction for the complex was paved with numerous challenges for Air Force Civil Engineer Center staff and the construction team, ranging from outside terrorist activity, limited site access, Afghan subcontractor delays, inclement weather and troubled supply lines.

"The entire design and construction process was a mindboggling challenge between the onslaught of delays and the high target risk of being co-located with the Presidential Palace, while managing a cost plus fixed fee contract that required several ceiling and time increases," said Lara Schoenenberger, professional engineer and contingency construction section chief for the AFCEC Facility Engineering Directorate. "This project was the epitome of 'you couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.'"

Located in Kabul, the 525,000 square-foot facility, hailed as a "mini-Pentagon," provides a centralized location for the executive level of the Afghan National Army.

The complex, located adjacent to the Afghan Presidential Palace and co-located with the Afghan National Army, includes two dormitories and garrison support facilities which encompasses a gymnasium, a courthouse, and dining facilities, as well as the main headquarters. The headquarters itself has five above-ground floors and a two-story basement, providing workspace for about 2,200 personnel.

"The facility brings all Afghan Ministry of Defense offices under one roof to provide a more cohesive center of military governance for the country," said Lt. Col. Erik Sell, former chief of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center Strategic Design and Construction Division.

Unique in its construction, the exterior façade is the winning entry from a design competition held between the architecture departments of Kabul Polytechnic University and the engineering faculty of Kabul University. The competition encouraged local talent to become involved in the process of national reconstruction, and the design reflects Afghan culture and heritage.

Built in a zone of extremely high seismic activity, the facility required engineering and architectural features that would allow "survivable pockets" in the event of a collapse from a powerful earthquake or nearby explosions. To accomplish this, the contractor built seven separate super-structures with foam-filled sway gaps to allow some movement between the structures.

"The MOD headquarters has experienced nine earthquakes, between 4.1 and 6.1 magnitude on the Richter scale, since construction started in 2010," Schoenenberger said. "A recent earthquake of 5.7 occurred in August 2015, just two days after a 700 kg vehicle borne improvised explosion device detonated just two kilometers from the MOD, with only a few window pane cracks of damage reported."

The most recent,  a 7.5magnitude earthquake in October, occurred about 160 miles northeast of the city of Kabul and caused several buildings in the city to sustain substantial damage.  However, the seismic systems installed in the multi-floor MOD headquarter building performed as designed; the building swayed and then settled back into place with only minor cosmetic damage around the upper floors, Schoenenberger said. 

At the onset of the project, groundbreaking was delayed 440 days while waiting on the construction completion of a new dining facility for the Afghan National Army, since the existing dining facility stood in the footprint for the new MOD headquarters.

In the final year of construction alone, construction was halted unexpectedly 17 times by the Afghan National Army or by the Afghan Presidential Security team, Schoenenberger said.

"Constructing facilities in a hostile war zone was especially challenging because of security concerns, up to two hours of each day was spent clearing approximately 800 workers for duty," Sell said. "Workers were in peril waiting in the security queue outside of the MOD walls. Six suicide bomber attacks killed or injured several Afghan workers. In March 2013, the Taliban were able to penetrate two security checkpoints and detonate their vests at the final security gate which was located 50 feet from the MOD headquarters."

One of AFCEC's U.S. Army customers, Maj. Gen. Harold Greene, was also a victim to terrorism. Greene's support helped secure final funding for a $60 million contract award while his partnerships with the Afghan Ministry of Defense and Afghan National Army helped to influence and reduce the amount of Afghan government delays that had plagued the project for six years.

A few days after the contract award, on Aug. 5, 2014, Greene was killed and 17 other coalition troops were injured during an attack at another project completed by AFCEC, the Marshal Fahim National Defense University outside Kabul.

In a note to former AFCEC Director Joe Sciabica, less than seven days before the attack, Greene discussed the MOD hurdles.

"Keep the faith ... we've come too far. I don't plan to stay until completion, but I sure would like to see it moving forward and well on the way to completion before I leave," Greene wrote.

Another challenge the team faced was supplies - both getting them to the construction site and ensuring the quality met specified standards. Downtown Kabul, home to a population of more than three million, did not allow the passage of concrete trucks during the day, so concrete could only be delivered at night with no possibility of additional supplies during work hours.

The initial concrete mix met the design strength but the addition of the course aggregate had to be monitored at the batch plants, requiring quality control inspectors to be positioned at each concrete plant to ensure requirements were met.

Inclement weather also took its toll on the project. The winter of 2011 was one of the worst on record for Kabul, dumping two to three feet of snow on the city.

In spite of multiple challenges, construction of the MOD headquarters ended April 30, three months ahead of schedule, providing the Afghan national government with a centralized facility for overseeing the armed forces needed to fulfill both wartime and peacetime missions to the nation.

"Collectively, we achieved amazing results under the most challenging of conditions," said Col. James Hickman, former chief of the AFCEC Strategic Design and Construction Division.