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A new roof contractor recently began the rework on the first of four phases of roof repair on the Kaiserslautern Military Community Center, hitting a major milestone in KMCC construction.
“Seeing the new contractor start tearing up the old roof and putting on a new one has been a huge morale boost for those of us who work on this project everyday,” said Maj. Andrew Sheehan, chief of KMCC Operations and Quality Branch, who has been diligently working on this project since July 2006.
***image1***The roof has been one of the major technical issues the German state agent Landesbetrieb, Liegenschafts und Baubetreuung, or LBB, has had to overcome to complete the KMCC. The agent performs all design, solicitation, award and management supervision for construction works on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany for the U.S.
The initial roof contractor improperly installed the first layers of the roof system, including the vapor barrier, insulation layer, and primary water-sealing layers, on the concrete roof slab. This improper installation caused leaks in multiple places in the KMCC that Air Force officials detected in early 2006.
“The initial contractor didn’t make the repairs when they were notified of the deficiencies and eventually went bankrupt, leaving us with a poorly constructed, incomplete roof,” said Major Sheehan. “With this poor condition of the roof, the only course of action was to obtain a new contractor to install the roof properly.”
An expert evaluation of the improperly installed roof defined the work needed to fix deficiencies and complete the original contractor’s work. Work has now begun and is expected to continue steadily until the roof is complete, sometime in 2008.
Major Sheehan explained how the rework was broken into four phases. The first phase of rework is closest to the visitor’s quarters, also known as the terrace roof. The second phase of repair is the portion atop of the visitors’ quarters tower itself; phases three and four cover the main mall area.
Some people mistakenly think the “green roof” concept of the KMCC is the reason for the construction problems. As Achim Romanowski, a USAFE quality assurance evaluator for KMCC explained, the real problem was with the layers below the green roof. The green roof concept will provide the government at least a 25 percent reduction in energy costs and will reduce the storm water runoff to the local community.
“The green roof as a concept has been installed on many buildings all over Germany and proven successful,” said Mr. Romanowski.
With the reconstruction on the roof, the work force at the KMCC has increased substantially. A greater workforce means the KMCC is making those incremental steps to completion. In the case of the roof, the first phase toward completion is well under way.
