Global U.S. Building Program Adapts to New Pressures
Under growing schedule pressure to turn out safer and more secure embassies around the world, but with tighter budgets, the U.S. State Dept.'s Overseas Building Operations Bureau is ramping up its construction output. Some new process changes in the $17.5-billion program are also the result of growing pains that have become apparent this year.
At an annual event for current and prospective OBO contractors, agency Chief Operating Officer Charles E. Williams reported that 36 new embassy and annex facilities worth about $3.2 billion are under construction, 31 have been completed in the last six years and more than 76 "long range" projects, valued at about $6.5 billion, are planned. Williams compared the results to the 1990s when the department completed one new embassy a year.