What We Do
This is from a KBR newsletter and it gives some insight as to what is involved in this business.
U.S. Embassy in Kabul
KBR meets embassy construction challenges
The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, had been evacuated since 1979, when the ambassador, Adolph Dubs, was kidnapped and assassinated. The next two decades saw the country invaded by the Soviet Union, torn by civil war, ruled by the Taliban and occupied by Al Qaeda. During that time, the embassy buildings were inhabited by Afghani caretakers, but the U.S. had no official presence.
All that changed in September 2001. Afghanistan was launched on a new course, and the country took on a new importance for the U.S. government. That led to KBR's competitively bid $150 million contract with the U.S. Department of State (DoS), awarded in 2002, to design and build a new embassy compound on the site of the old one.
KBR's participation with the DoS started with a 1999 contract to upgrade the security of U.S. embassies and consulates around the world following the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. The execution of that program was valuable experience in competing for this new job, and the Kabul contract has already led to another new embassy job in Skopje, Macedonia.
The construction arm of the DoS, the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, initiated a long-range building program that increased the number of embassies through reduced costs, design and construction time. The main instrument of this change was the creation of a Standard Embassy Design that established criteria such as common specifications and floor plans. The specific requirements for the Afghanistan embassy and its size were dictated by the country's strategic importance in the global war on terrorism and the challenges of functioning in a city that cannot be totally secured against enemies.
In outlining the scope of this government contract, one enters a dense forest of DoS acronyms. For instance, this is a new embassy compound (NEC) that includes a new office building (NOB) to replace an existing office building (EOB), along with quarters for the Marine security guards (MSGQ) and apartments for the diplomatic staff (SDA), a complete utility plant and perimeter security structures with three Compound Access Control (CAC) facilities.
The compound had to be completely self-sufficient and able to function for long periods of time on its own resources. The design team, led by Design/Engineering Manager Tom Christensen, had to make it work without bringing anything in from the outside except fuel -- and there were large underground tanks for that. The design included power generation, water wells, water purification, wastewater treatment and recycling systems for irrigation. How long the compound could last without re-supply is classified information, but the answer is surely, "long enough."
In addition, all of the embassy's American staff had to be housed inside the compound for security reasons. This meant a total of 146 apartments, for everyone from the ambassador on down, as well as separate barracks for the Marine guards.
Because the old embassy building, the EOB, had been unoccupied for so long, there was no way to guarantee that its security had not been compromised. So another contractor did a very quick renovation of the existing buildings to continue the diplomatic mission while KBR started construction of the new buildings on the same compound.
KBR began to mobilize in Kabul in late 2002; the first task was to build a camp for the workers. By Spring 2003, construction started in earnest on the compound itself, under Site Project Manager Bob McNamara. With the guidance and supervision of the current Site Project Manager Bruce Walker, the project is virtually complete now, after two-and-a-half years of unusual challenges.
The first challenge was the question of who was going to do the work. Ordinarily, the answer would be obvious: hire local contractors and tradesmen. But this job required full background checks for everyone onsite, and that in turn meant an investigation for every worker. This was simply not possible in Afghanistan. Decades of civil war had destroyed what few records had ever been kept. There was virtually no way for workers to prove who they were, where they came from, or anything about their past. And, even in times of peace, Afghan society had never placed much importance on such records.
Instead, KBR used a Turkish subcontractor that could get background checks for every worker. This firm performed about 80 percent of the work. The rest had to be done by Americans with security clearances -- KBR employees with a few specialized subcontractors.
KBR also supplied its own security for both the job site and the KBR workers' camp, and the security workers naturally also had to pass the strictest security checks. The solution here was a private firm staffed by Gurkhas -- former members of the elite British regiment recruited from the Gurkha people of Nepal. Everyone in Asia knows about the Gurkhas, and nobody bothers them. With the Gurkhas on site, KBR had no serious security problems in Kabul.
Perhaps the biggest challenge came from the remoteness of the site and the security requirements that extended to procurement and shipping.
There was no Home Depot in Kabul. KBR couldn't buy so much as a barrel of nails there in 2002. Absolutely everything had to be brought in -- by ship, and then by truck, since Afghanistan has no seacoast. It took a minimum of 60 days to acquire anything.
And much of the shipping had to be secure -- sealed containers of the highest quality, with special tamper-resistant features built in -- and then thoroughly inspected and decertified by a government agent on arrival at the site.
The KBR team met these challenges, as they always do, delivering this complicated and exacting project on time and on budget. Both the lessons learned and the talent developed are now being applied to other KBR projects, such as the embassy in Macedonia and other U.S.-based design build construction projects for the U.S. Defense Department.
One measure of the skill with which the job was executed is the admirable safety record of the team involved. The first million hours were logged without incident. After some minor injuries in 2003, another string of more than two million incident-free hours has now been added to the books. This is quite impressive considering that KBR's safety culture was completely new to the subcontractor carrying out the bulk of the work.
The Kabul embassy is a completely new facility that represents the most advanced state-of-the-art construction. But KBR did preserve at least one important element of the old site. In 2001, U.S. Marines brought rubble from the World Trade Center, buried it on the embassy grounds and built a monument to remind everyone of the nature of their mission. This monument turned out to be situated in an unfavorable location for the new construction. So KBR carefully excavated and relocated everything to a prominent new site. That's what KBR does -- physical construction, but always with a view to human purpose and meaning.
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That's enough company propaganda for now. Goodnight.
U.S. Embassy in Kabul
KBR meets embassy construction challenges
The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, had been evacuated since 1979, when the ambassador, Adolph Dubs, was kidnapped and assassinated. The next two decades saw the country invaded by the Soviet Union, torn by civil war, ruled by the Taliban and occupied by Al Qaeda. During that time, the embassy buildings were inhabited by Afghani caretakers, but the U.S. had no official presence.
All that changed in September 2001. Afghanistan was launched on a new course, and the country took on a new importance for the U.S. government. That led to KBR's competitively bid $150 million contract with the U.S. Department of State (DoS), awarded in 2002, to design and build a new embassy compound on the site of the old one.
KBR's participation with the DoS started with a 1999 contract to upgrade the security of U.S. embassies and consulates around the world following the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. The execution of that program was valuable experience in competing for this new job, and the Kabul contract has already led to another new embassy job in Skopje, Macedonia.
The construction arm of the DoS, the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, initiated a long-range building program that increased the number of embassies through reduced costs, design and construction time. The main instrument of this change was the creation of a Standard Embassy Design that established criteria such as common specifications and floor plans. The specific requirements for the Afghanistan embassy and its size were dictated by the country's strategic importance in the global war on terrorism and the challenges of functioning in a city that cannot be totally secured against enemies.
In outlining the scope of this government contract, one enters a dense forest of DoS acronyms. For instance, this is a new embassy compound (NEC) that includes a new office building (NOB) to replace an existing office building (EOB), along with quarters for the Marine security guards (MSGQ) and apartments for the diplomatic staff (SDA), a complete utility plant and perimeter security structures with three Compound Access Control (CAC) facilities.
The compound had to be completely self-sufficient and able to function for long periods of time on its own resources. The design team, led by Design/Engineering Manager Tom Christensen, had to make it work without bringing anything in from the outside except fuel -- and there were large underground tanks for that. The design included power generation, water wells, water purification, wastewater treatment and recycling systems for irrigation. How long the compound could last without re-supply is classified information, but the answer is surely, "long enough."
In addition, all of the embassy's American staff had to be housed inside the compound for security reasons. This meant a total of 146 apartments, for everyone from the ambassador on down, as well as separate barracks for the Marine guards.
Because the old embassy building, the EOB, had been unoccupied for so long, there was no way to guarantee that its security had not been compromised. So another contractor did a very quick renovation of the existing buildings to continue the diplomatic mission while KBR started construction of the new buildings on the same compound.
KBR began to mobilize in Kabul in late 2002; the first task was to build a camp for the workers. By Spring 2003, construction started in earnest on the compound itself, under Site Project Manager Bob McNamara. With the guidance and supervision of the current Site Project Manager Bruce Walker, the project is virtually complete now, after two-and-a-half years of unusual challenges.
The first challenge was the question of who was going to do the work. Ordinarily, the answer would be obvious: hire local contractors and tradesmen. But this job required full background checks for everyone onsite, and that in turn meant an investigation for every worker. This was simply not possible in Afghanistan. Decades of civil war had destroyed what few records had ever been kept. There was virtually no way for workers to prove who they were, where they came from, or anything about their past. And, even in times of peace, Afghan society had never placed much importance on such records.
Instead, KBR used a Turkish subcontractor that could get background checks for every worker. This firm performed about 80 percent of the work. The rest had to be done by Americans with security clearances -- KBR employees with a few specialized subcontractors.
KBR also supplied its own security for both the job site and the KBR workers' camp, and the security workers naturally also had to pass the strictest security checks. The solution here was a private firm staffed by Gurkhas -- former members of the elite British regiment recruited from the Gurkha people of Nepal. Everyone in Asia knows about the Gurkhas, and nobody bothers them. With the Gurkhas on site, KBR had no serious security problems in Kabul.
Perhaps the biggest challenge came from the remoteness of the site and the security requirements that extended to procurement and shipping.
There was no Home Depot in Kabul. KBR couldn't buy so much as a barrel of nails there in 2002. Absolutely everything had to be brought in -- by ship, and then by truck, since Afghanistan has no seacoast. It took a minimum of 60 days to acquire anything.
And much of the shipping had to be secure -- sealed containers of the highest quality, with special tamper-resistant features built in -- and then thoroughly inspected and decertified by a government agent on arrival at the site.
The KBR team met these challenges, as they always do, delivering this complicated and exacting project on time and on budget. Both the lessons learned and the talent developed are now being applied to other KBR projects, such as the embassy in Macedonia and other U.S.-based design build construction projects for the U.S. Defense Department.
One measure of the skill with which the job was executed is the admirable safety record of the team involved. The first million hours were logged without incident. After some minor injuries in 2003, another string of more than two million incident-free hours has now been added to the books. This is quite impressive considering that KBR's safety culture was completely new to the subcontractor carrying out the bulk of the work.
The Kabul embassy is a completely new facility that represents the most advanced state-of-the-art construction. But KBR did preserve at least one important element of the old site. In 2001, U.S. Marines brought rubble from the World Trade Center, buried it on the embassy grounds and built a monument to remind everyone of the nature of their mission. This monument turned out to be situated in an unfavorable location for the new construction. So KBR carefully excavated and relocated everything to a prominent new site. That's what KBR does -- physical construction, but always with a view to human purpose and meaning.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's enough company propaganda for now. Goodnight.
posted by BC at 9:31 PM
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