Posted on November 20, 2024
The U.S. Marine Corps had 58 active construction projects in fiscal year 2024 which ended in September, an overview brief from the Office in Charge of Construction Marine Corps Marianas states.
The office was first commissioned in 2016 and has about 130 personnel who monitor and manage construction projects on Guam, according to a release from the U.S. Navy.
The mission of the Office in Charge of Construction Marine Corps Marianas is to deliver high-quality enduring infrastructure on time, on budget, and safely for the Marine Corps and Joint Forces to train and operate from Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
The office is responsible for all Defense Policy Review Initiative funded construction projects conducted on Department of Defense property across the island.
DPRI projects account for $8.9 billion of construction, of which $3.9 billion is funded by an international agreement between the United States and Japan, the release states.
Active construction sites are located on Naval Base Guam, Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz, the Skaggs Training Complex in Yigo and Andersen Air Force Base North Ramp. Projects have varied requirements, ranging from upgraded utility infrastructure and warehouses to training ranges and aviation facilities.
“I’m grateful to be a part of this incredible team,” said Capt. Blake Burket, who assumed command of OICC MCM in the summer of 2024. “Together we are aggressively delivering excellent buildings, facilities and infrastructure. This is history in the making. We are literally constructing a legacy that will endure for generations.”
OICC MCM uses two industry standards to measure the quantity and quality of their construction work: Work in Place (WIP) rates, a progress metric, and the Days Away, Restricted or Transferred (DART) rate, an Occupational Safety and Health Administration safety metric.
The WIP rate reflects the cost of actual work conducted on a construction project compared to the expected total cost of the construction contract.
In fiscal year 2024, OICC MCM recorded a record-breaking $809 million of WIP completed, at a rate of 99% contracted costs. This is the highest recorded WIP rate since the command’s commissioning, according to a report sent to Naval Facilities and Engineering Systems Command Pacific.
The DART program records safety incidents that cause construction workers to step away from work, restrict their work processes, or transfer to a different task.
Safety has always been a priority at OICC MCM, according to their leadership.
“We are making history with these projects, but none of that matters unless everyone goes home with limbs, eyesight, and hearing,” said Burket.
A DART rate of 1.8 per 100 workers is considered industry standard. The OICC MCM collects DART rates from all 14 contractors working active construction sites. In fiscal year 2024, OICC MCM recorded an overall rate of only 0.05 DART incidents across a workforce of over 6,000 personnel.
“This is even lower than our DART rate in 2023,” said Johnny Cruz, the Occupational, Safety, and Health manager at OICC MCM. Cruz personally visits construction sites to meet with each contractor’s safety managers and assists them with their safety programs, He attributes the remarkable safety program to the proactive efforts of contracting companies.
“Creating this proactive safety culture relies on the collaboration and expertise of many outstanding safety professionals,” he said.
