Construction on Fort Stewart’s $427 million 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team complex will be close to completion and ready for troops to occupy in mid-July, when Vanguard soldiers return from a 12-month deployment to Iraq.

Looking more like a college campus than a military installation, the self-contained brigade area will include barracks, a physical fitness facility, a headquarters building and a dining facility. The new complex for the 4th Brigade is only one construction project the Corps of Engineers currently oversees on Fort Stewart/Hunter Army Airfield.

3rd Infantry Division commander Gen. Tony Cucolo recently told the Hinesville Rotary Club that once the 4th Brigade returns, 4,800 soldiers are expected to “move in” to the new complex, “freeing up room” in Fort Stewart’s “main” garrison area.

Speed limits along state Hwys. 119 and 144 were lowered in anticipation of increased traffic expected on those roads once 4th Brigade soldiers redeploy.

Amanda Pommerenck, engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Fort Stewart north-resident office, said the 20 new barracks buildings were designed to “give it that campus feel,” and resemble university dormitories. Each barracks will have 72 two-person “suites” for soldiers, Pommerenck said.

“Each suite will have two bedrooms and a shared kitchen and bath,” she added.

Pommerenck explained the Corps of Engineers “administers the contract(s),” for various contractors, such as M.A. Mortenson Co., which is working on the combined brigade/battalion headquarters building, and Archer Western Contractors, which is building the brigade barracks, at an estimated cost of $94,9 million.

The Corps’ job is to “provide quality assurance,” she said.

For more, pick up a copy of the Jan. 26 edition of the News.