U.S. Military Mulls Demolition for Aging Facilities

As institutional and commercial buildings continue to struggle against growing backlogs of needed repairs of aging buildings, a growing number of facility managers are asking whether a better approach is to demolish troubled buildings. Now, the US. Department of Defense says it plans to test that approach.

From barracks to office buildings, many U.S. Department of Defense facilities are in bad shape, and because of consistent maintenance shortfalls, things are getting worse. As part of a new strategy for its facilities, the department is trying a new approach — seeking permission from Congress to test pilot projects that would demolish old buildings and consolidate the people who live and work in them, according to the Federal News Network.

In a legislative proposal the department sent to Capitol Hill recently, officials asked to demonstrate the new demolition and consolidation ideas at five locations over the next three years, spending up to $25 million at each site.

The basic idea of the pilot program is to use military construction funding to tear down smaller older buildings that have fallen into disrepair and move their occupants into newer, larger facilities built with modern standards and that cost a lot less to maintain.

That is not to say demolition is not happening. Installation officials say it’s often the best way to solve the problem of older facilities becoming too expensive to maintain. Ravi Chaudhary, the assistant secretary of the Air Force said his service is already increasing its demolition budget to help reduce its $46 billion backlog in facility maintenance.

By Dan Hounsell, Senior Editor 

Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.  

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