oint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, or JBER, is slated for another round of extensive military construction in 2025. As crews continue work on JBER’s north-south 16/34 runway extension, the US Army Corps of Engineers–Alaska District, or USACE, is close to selecting a contractor for a new state-of-the-art Joint Integrated Test and Training Center, or JITTC. These projects, and several others statewide, are part of a larger national defense strategy to increase operational readiness, safety, and security.

Alaska is the closest US location to the center of the Northern Hemisphere, making it a military geostrategic hub. The state is singularly closer to many national capitals in the hemisphere than most points in the Lower 48. The base is roughly 3,000 miles from Washington, D.C., 3,000 miles from Europe, and 3,000 miles from Asia.

Alaska’s proximity to both Asia and the Pacific makes it an ideal launching point for homeland protection. Alaska is considered a critical component to the nation’s ballistic missile defense system, and military bases here will serve an expanding role of protection as companies explore arctic shipping lanes that, due to decreasing sea ice, are increasingly open for travel.

To prepare forces for the new challenges, the US Department of Defense, or DOD, is investing up to $500 million to develop a facility at JBER that will increase the responsiveness of agile combat warfighters and support teams.

The JITTC construction project includes a 150,000-square-foot technologically advanced facility that will house the joint-simulated-environment, or JSE, training platform; simulator rooms; briefing rooms; mission operations centers; a central server room; an auditorium; administrative space; a security office; break rooms; and storage. Crews will also build supporting infrastructure for the facility, such as a utility yard for chiller equipment, standby generator enclosures, fuel tank areas, and a 15 MVA substation. The project will include additional site improvements such as earthwork, landscaping, exterior lighting, parking, sidewalks, and roads.

JITTC will be built to withstand cold weather conditions, with a reinforced concrete foundation, a structural steel frame, insulated steel panels, masonry walls, and a standing seam metal-and-membrane roof. Inside the facility, crews will build a raised-access floor system and partitions, along with electrical, plumbing, environmental, and communication systems. All systems are designed for sustainability, including energy efficiencies that meet high-performance principles. Likewise, secured spaces will follow standards outlined in Intelligence Community Directive 705, which aims to protect sensitive intelligence information.

“It’s a special and complex project with a lot of moving pieces that will need to come together in one area,” says Thareth Casey, USACE Project Manager. “When completed, it will be the biggest and most innovative building on the base.”

The decision to place JITTC at JBER came after a lengthy process that involved assessing the area’s ability to facilitate the mission and infrastructure, community support, environmental factors, and cost. JBER is home to a variety of military units and is tasked with providing air supremacy, surveillance, worldwide airlift, and agile support forces to project global power and global reach, as well as training and readiness oversight.

“It’s one of the biggest projects our district has seen and will be transformative for the base,” says Casey. “JITTC shows how important JBER is to Indo-Pacific Command.”

USACE closed the bid process in February and plans to announce a contractor by the end of June, with the goal to begin construction by midsummer. This multi-year project has an estimated completion date of fall 2029.

The Joint Integrated Test and Training Center, or JITTC, will be the first of its kind, enabling critical joint and multinational force training, and the only place in the Indo-Pacific Command to host multi-domain simulators for joint and coalition fighters, including F-35, F-22, F-15, F-18, next-generation bombers, command and control platforms, intelligence surveillance, reconnaissance aircraft, and long-range fires.

Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. continues its work as the primary contractor on the JBER Runway Extension project. Starting in October 2022, crews have worked on extending the existing north-south 16/34 runway by 2,900 feet, bringing its total length to 10,000 feet, and shifting the southern part of the runway 400 feet to meet airfield design requirements. When complete, the runway length will match that of the existing east-west 06/24 runway, which will make the airfield safer and more efficient.

Airspace in the Anchorage area is heavily congested with JBER flights, commercial passenger and cargo aircraft arriving and departing Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, flights from Lake Hood Seaplane Base, and additional air traffic from Merrill Field. The smaller size of the north-south 16/34 runway meant JBER pilots often relied on the longer east-west 06/24 runway for large-frame aircraft, which led to further congestion. Extending the north-south 16/34 runway allows more military planes to depart and recover in air spaces that are less congested.

“Safety is extremely important,” says Daly Yates, USACE program manager on the runway project. “Strategically, Alaska—particularly Anchorage—provides top cover for the US.”

Construction crews have faced several challenges, including the second-highest snowfall on record in 2023-2024 and some of the highest rain events in the past twenty years. To keep the project moving forward, crews had to mobilize pumps to drain excess water and stabilize the site. USACE worked with JBER to ensure the construction activities met environmental standards and didn’t spread pollutants. In addition to dealing with excessive weather, crews needed to move a small mountain to expand the runway. To date, Kiewit has relocated nearly 12 million cubic yards of dirt along the 1,400-acre site.

In addition to extending the runway, crews will build two supporting taxiways, new shoulders, grading, drainage, and new lighting.

The runway extension is a collaborative effort between the Air Force Installation Mission Support Center, USACE Alaska District, JBER’s 3rd Operations Support and 673rd Civil Engineer Squadrons, and the Air Force Civil Engineering Center. The project, one of the largest ever undertaken by Pacific Air Forces, is on track to be completed by September 2026 and will cost around $360 million.

The JITTC facility will be an evolutionary building structure for Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, transforming the perception of the base and how buildings look and feel in the future. It will be the largest building of its kind, have the biggest central server room with 426 servers, and require the construction of a 15 MVA substation to handle the facility’s electrical demand load.

USACE is also overseeing several other statewide projects. On Shemya Island, a project to make long-term fuel pier repairs at Eareckson Air Station, or EAS, will begin this spring. Crews from Brice Turnagain JV, LLC will install a 560-foot combi-wall system to encapsulate the existing pier’s face and replace the existing pier deck. Brice Turnagain previously worked to restore the pier to functional status in 2021 until a long-term solution could be developed.

Though EAS is in a remote part of the state, it serves as an Air Force refueling station as well as an intercontinental emergency landing strip for commercial air traffic crossing the Pacific Ocean. Likewise, it is a receiving area for barges and other operations happening on the island. Given the sensitivity of marine mammals in the area, the 2025 construction period will only last 160 days, ending in October. Completion of the pier is slated for 2026 and will cost $176.7 million.

Various construction projects are underway at US Coast Guard Base Kodiak. Crews on the Nemetz Family Housing project are building fifty additional housing units divided between thirty-eight three-bedroom and twelve four-bedroom homes. The goal of the Nemetz Family Housing project is to meet the needs of families stationed in Kodiak. Housing construction began in September 2022 and is expected to be complete this year.

Tutor Perini Corporation is the prime contractor, with RSP Architects providing design and construction administration services. The cost of this project is not final as material costs and other expenses have increased over
the years.

The housing design incorporates sustainable features and promotes energy efficiency. The units include air-to-water heat pumps, hydronic floor heating, and LED lighting, which designers hope will help them meet the goal of a 30 percent reduction in energy use.