Photo By Staff Sgt. Jeremy Miller | U.S. Soldiers assigned to the 207th Engineer Company, U.S. Marines, U.S. Air Force...... read more read more
CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait--- Service members assigned to the US Army 854th Engineer Battalion, the 372nd Marine Wing Support Squadron and the U.S. Airforce’s 407th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron recently completed a joint training project to test the Operational Ready Dirt Soil Improvement System at Al Jaber Air Base, Kuwait on August 24, 2017.
Operational Ready Dirt is an experimental surface structure product that could potentially allow for faster creation of roads, runways and helicopter landing pads, as well as needed dust control within the region.
207 Engineer Company Project Officer, 1st Lt. William Fegenbush, 854th Engineer Battalion, says the initial project objective was to create a landing zone for MV-22 aircraft in order to train pilots for low visibility landings prior to operations in theater.
“It was decided to build the landing zone in order to both understand the installation process and to evaluate the product for construction of improved roads and dust control in theater,” said Fegenbush.
The entire horizontal construction process took fewer resources to complete than was originally expected. A process that normally would have required substrate, a large number of graders, rollers and scoop loaders, instead took far fewer resources and was completed with only a twenty person team.
“The products could improve existing improved road construction to near the same conditions as a paved asphalt surface,” said Fegenbush. “The portability of the product could improve logistical operations at extreme forward locations where traditional materials are not available.”
Fegenbush additionally explained other practical benefits of the Ready Dirt including how convoy speeds on treated areas could be significantly increased with lower risk.
“The new road surface product could also provide the opportunity for engineers to add any color pigment to the finished surface,” said Fegenbush. “Including an infra-red reflective option to increase safety of aviation assets and improved mobility.”
Along with field-testing a potential game-changing technology, the construction project also allowed for engineers across three service branches to work together and learn from their respective crafts.
“It’s a great experience to see how each branch handles a project site,” said U.S. Army Sergeant Matthew Joseph of the 207th EN CO. “It allows us to better work together for future engineer operations.”
Evaluation of the emplaced product is expected to be available in the coming weeks, as the test road sees wheeled vehicle traffic.
| Date Taken: | 08.24.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 09.15.2017 05:35 |
| Story ID: | 247206 |
| Location: | CAMP ARIFJAN, KW |
| Web Views: | 53 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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