Challenge
With an average rainfall of 78 inches per year and a short 6-month “dry season”, timing was critical for project success. The original contractor had been terminated by the Department of the Navy, so CSI teamed with Sundt Construction in a short list bid to build the airfield. Complicating the challenge was the fact that equipment and materials had to be imported.
CSI excavated over 2 million cubic yards of material for embankments, culverts, revetment and runway construction. Portland cement had to be imported from Indonesia – in bags! To produce the daily requirement of 2000 cubic yards of concrete, 17,000 bags were opened each day. Over 1 million bags of cement were consumed on the project.
At completion, the Ralph Parsons Company developed a report for the US government about how to construct an airfield in a remote, third world area. They cited CSI’s success at Clark AFB.