Soldiers Complain of Mold and Malfunctioning Elevators Within New Buildings at Camp Humphreys
It appears there are more problems with the quality of work done constructing the new buildings on Camp Humphreys:
A 10-year-old girl was stuck in an elevator for 45 minutes before somebody heard her screaming and called for help, her mother said.
Stars & Stripes
Soldiers complained about mold and temperature control problems in the barracks.
Residents of Camp Humphreys gave commanders an earful Friday during a town-hall meeting about housing woes on the U.S. military’s new headquarters base in the rural area of Pyeongtaek, about 55 miles south of Seoul.
Military and housing officials, who seemed surprised by the severity of some of the complaints, responded swiftly by sending people to check on the situation the next day.
But many in the audience asked how the problems were allowed to occur considering many of the facilities are new and touted as state of the art.
The meeting, held in the Four Chaplains memorial chapel, was part of a military-wide outreach effort seeking feedback from soldiers and their loved ones following congressional testimony and media reports revealing dangerous conditions on bases in the United States.
Here is what the USFK Commander had to say about this, which was essentially don’t blame us, but we are trying to fix it:
U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Robert Abrams explained that the Army Corps of Engineers, which oversaw the expansion project, could not do quality checks until 80 percent of the project was complete according to the bilateral agreement.
The hospital and some other facilities have failed that test in the past, forcing the builders to go back and fix things even if that meant starting from scratch.
“We’re actually at the mercy, if you will, of those contractors,” he told the audience.
The four-star later clarified that he understands why South Korea wanted the oversight since it is making such a huge investment in the base.
“We can provide feedback, which we do. We have direct access and we’re pretty aggressive about it,” he told Stars and Stripes. “I was really driving home the point that this is not the garrison’s fault and it’s not our Corps of Engineers’ fault.”
You can read more at the link, but the Camp Humphreys expansion project has been plagued by corruption scandals over the years so the fact Soldiers are dealing with apparently poor construction should not be too surprising to everyone.
Commie Moon’s brilliant plan to force out USFK by making on and off-post unlivable.
There was mold in my barracks at Griss AFB in 1979. That, by itself, is not a Korean thing.
I experienced temperature control problems in every barracks I lived in. Sometimes, the heaters didn’t work and none of them had air conditioners. I turned out alright.
80% complete before quality checks are allowed? A lot of substandard things could be hidden by the time a building is 80%. Whoever drafted that contract for the contractors knew what they were doing.
Certainly, this S&S article is just exposing the tip of the iceberg. Wait until this summer when everyone will run air conditioners full blast day and night which would tax even a well designed, high quality, and skillfully installed HVAC and power grid system. Then the Changma will hit (remember 2010 dumping 25 inches of rain in a 24 hr period?). We’ll see how well whatever was thrown together at Humphreys will hold up when every a/c unit is on and every sump pump is running non-stop for a week or more. I only hope our facility managers are relentless in demanding meaningful repairs/replacements during the two year warranty period. Most on this forum already know the fortitude and persistence it takes when dealing with Korean management whose goal is to delay, deny, and deceive to reach that two-year mark.
Is it just me or does General Bills look eager to listen to the next complaint?
McGeehee, LTG Bills looks like Hank Hill’s dad, bet he killed some ‘japs’ in the war. Anyway, seeing 8th Army HQ building roof leaked the week after they occupied you know the monsoon season will bring disaster. I fear the first real typhoon that hits, how well do you think all the fill was really put in with the wonderful oversight provided by the ever attentive Korean Government….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r14rozZDzrM
Meanwhile at Yongsan, the Japanese constructed buildings stand strong to this day. Kim and Chang or whoever drafted the contract for SK construction made out like bandits.
Nothing new here. Same as every in-kind project and every CDIP project, under burdensharing agreements. Korean contractors are in to cut corners and line their pockets.
“We can provide feedback, which we do. We have direct access and we’re pretty aggressive about it,” does not compute with “Military and housing officials, who seemed surprised by the severity of some of the complaints,”. Yeah, pretty agressive there. Let’s be honest, we pushed back on the hospital, cause when congressmen come to visist, that is a building they will be shown, not the barracks. All these shocked looks from “command” and “installations” really show how far the rot has spread. Mark your calendars people, 2019 was the year SHARP officially died as the priority and now it is housing War on Mold for the next couple years. This shit is nothing new, you can find articles every year detailing the issues of housing and barracks conditions and to see this as DoD wide really shows the weakness of outsourcing. I am not saying outsourcing is bad, but you lose so much control, especially when you sign frigging 50yr contracts with virtually no oversight.
There was mold in Walter Reed. In rooms occupied by seriously-wounded GIs.
That said, they need to wear out the warranty on those new buildings at the Hump. And see about adding another pizza place.
1. Far East District Quality Assurance Branch provided construction quality oversight throughout the entire construction process. They let a LOT of stuff get by that should have been corrected.
2. Construction contractors are fighting warranty issues like their life depended on it.
The US govt. will end up putting probably the same amount into corrective action over the next several years as was spent on the whole program! Time to go home.
Wasn’t there a colonel in charge of oversight while her husband had some roll in construction?
I can’t quite remeber the deal but when it came out, they explained how it was perfectly normal and any sort of shady actions this encouraged never even crossed their minds.
And everyone went “oh, okey”.
None of this is surprising. ROK Heads predicted the corruption and shoddy construction would happen when the expansion was announced over a decade ago. A bunch more money will get poured into getting the problems fixed, the challenge will be making sure it is Korean money and not US money getting poured into the problem.
Just for the record LTG Bills is a great senior leader and any issues identified I am confident he will take seriously to fix.
Wasn’t there a colonel in charge of oversight while her husband had some roll in construction?
I don’t know about South Korean projects, but I know at one base it was really difficult to get the Mission Support Group Commander to hire anyone other than SABER for projects. They were terrible, but every time he’d make up some excuse. He’d worked with them for years so I suspected his plan was a follow on job with SABER.
The mold issue isn’t just on base either – I’ve heard the same complaints about some of the new housing built off-base primarily intended for leasing to USFK members.
Guitard, places off base were thrown up quick to capture more of uncle war bucks dollars by the greedy locals more interested in making a buck off the Americans than defending their own country.
Someone in USFK leadership should organize a little boondoggle to the Philippines and get the locals to describe how the economy reacted to the US pulling out.