Construction equipment to be busy at military sites in Texas

Military construction in Texas will rise this year
Military construction in Texas will rise this year
Construction equipment will be humming in southern Texas for quite some time as the Department of Defence has announced that three new construction contracts have been awarded in the San Antonio area.

The contracts are part of the DoD's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program and will constitute $43 million in construction of projects for the Army Corp of Engineers and Air Force.

It is only a fraction of the $726.5 million that the Pentagon will spend on military construction in Texas as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - better known as the economic stimulus package.

Democratic representative Cico Rodriguez of San Antonio told the Express-News that in addition to improving the military, the spending will help to create jobs in the area.

"It's a combination of military readiness and quality of life," he told the paper. "The whole stimulus bill was about education, health care, infrastructure and energy. There are going to be jobs created in our area, whether it's at Randolph, Lackland or Laughlin."

Last month, prior to the signing of the stimulus package, it was reported that more than $200 million in military construction projects were slated in Alaska.ADNFCR-2034-ID-19090471-ADNFCR