The Eielson Air Force Base is identified as a strategic response base by the U.S. Military, and is the future home of a new squadron of F-35A Fighters.  In preparation for the arrival of the F-35’s and the personnel to maintain and fly these aircraft, the Government needed to construct hangars; weather shelters; aircraft maintenance and munition facilities; dining, recreational, and housing facilities; administration facilities; and expand the existing infrastructure.

Our services included geotechnical and aircraft pavement engineering services based on explorations performed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). We supplemented the existing geotechnical explorations for some projects with environmental sampling and testing services, at the request of the Government, due to the known PFAS groundwater contamination.  Most of the F-35 projects included deep ground improvement and a couple of projects included pre-thawing of shallow ice rich permafrost. We also provided engineering support to design teams for projects in shallow permafrost areas and provided our frozen ground expertise to assist with geotechnical design.

We developed recommendations for deep dynamic compaction for most projects, and deep vibratory compaction for projects in proximity to sensitive structures. We were contracted by the USACE to conduct quality assurance testing on about a dozen additional projects.

During construction of at least 10 of these projects, we provided environmental support including field-screening and groundwater and soil sampling and assisted with waste disposal recommendations.