JBE041 Add/Alter AWACS Alert Hangar

This project provided the complete renovation and seismic upgrades for the 67,377 sf AWACS hangar bay and supporting office areas, maintenance shops and SCIF areas. The building, originally constructed in the 1950’s, included multiple later additions. A new steel frame and translucent panel hangar door was designed to fit in the existing hangar door opening. A new, 21,237 sf two-story Alert Crew Facility is located directly adjacent to the hangar. The Alert Crew Facility provides additional office areas, training rooms and emergency response crew quarters on the second floor. The exterior of the new Alert Crew Facility and the existing hangar renovations addition were designed to make the pair of buildings appear as a unified complex, per the JBER aesthetic standards.

The Alert Crew Facility is a new construction, two story addition to the Hangar. The first floor is primarily office space for the squadron, while the second floor is living quarters to use as an Alert Crew ready space for 24/7 occupation, including bedrooms, a dayroom, and kitchen. Ventilation for the Alert Facility is provided in a mezzanine level over the living quarters. The design team coordinated carefully with all disciplines to provide an acoustically isolated mechanical ventilation level, which is installed directly over sleeping quarters. Acoustical considerations include duct silencers, an acoustic plenum to control radiated noise, and a vibration isolation base for the ventilation unit.

Coffman provided mechanical, electrical, civil, landscape, acoustical, and fire protection engineering services. Prior to this design build project, Coffman’s structural team provided support to the Air Force and USACE by completing a structural/seismic evaluation of the existing structure. The ASCE 41 Tier II evaluation helped the design build teams find the focus areas of the existing hangar that required structural modifications to meet current seismic requirements.

Photo Credit: © Ken Graham Photography.com