Work continues on new dining facilities at Fort McCoy

Photo By Scott Sturkol | Contractors work on a new 1,428-person annual training/mobilization dining facility April 1, 2019, in the 1800 block at Fort McCoy, Wis. The project, coordinated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is being constructed by contractor L.S. Black Constructors of St. Paul, Minn., and is supposed to be completed later in 2019. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)  

FORT MCCOY, WI, UNITED STATES

04.22.2019

Story by Scott Sturkol                                                                                        

Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office           

Contractor L.S. Black Constructors of St. Paul, Minn., continues work on two new 1,428-person annual training/mobilization dining facilities in 1800 and 2400 blocks of Fort McCoy.

Both projects are U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE)-coordinated projects, said Nathan Butts, contract oversight representative with the Fort McCoy Project Office of the ACOE. Construction on the dining facility in the 1800 block began in May 2018 after a $13.5 million contract was awarded by ACOE.

As of April 12, construction was approximately 65 percent complete at the 1800-block project. Recent work included metal roof installation, interior electrical work, ceramic wall tile installation, interior painting and plumbing work, window installation, and more, Butts said.

In the 2400 block, the construction of the facility that began in July 2018 is approximately 25 percent complete. Recent work included interior construction of walls and framing as well as drywall installation.

Both projects will be completed this year, Butts said. When complete, the new facilities will have the latest and best food preparation and cooking areas; an entrance/control area; and serving, dining, dishwashing, administration, and locker areas. The facilities also will have state-of-the-art waste-disposal systems, a receiving and loading dock, cold and dry storage, and more.

Building a dining facility generally takes longer than building other types of facilities, Butts said.

“Dining facilities like these require lots of specialty equipment, which means additional time is needed to build the connections and lines for that equipment into the infrastructure,” Butts said.

Fort McCoy Food Service Manager Andy Pisney with the Logistics Readiness Center Supply and Services Division said the new facilities will improve capability. Pisney’s office oversees the food-service contract for Fort McCoy dining facilities.

He said that when the facilities are done, they will be unit-operated dining facilities. “It will really work well for those larger units who currently might sign out two or three of our World War II-era facilities to feed their troops,” Pisney said. “Now they’ll only have to sign out one facility.

“Each one of these dining facilities also will have two containerized kitchen pads located directly behind them,” Pisney said. “These pads are part of the design and will enable units to be able to set up their containerized kitchens behind the dining facilities and then train on them. This enhances field troop-feeding capabilities during training.”

These dining facilities also are the fifth and sixth brick-and-mortar dining facilities on post.

Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin. The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services each year since 1984.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”

• Date Taken: 04.22.2019
• Date Posted: 04.22.2019 09:39
• Story ID: 318976
• Location: FORT MCCOY, WI, US