After a long day of tactical training cadets at Fort Knox, Kentucky now have a new bed-down facility where they can recharge overnight.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District recently completed the five-acre site making room for 1,400 cadets to sleep, shower and dine.
“It’s a quiet area and a good place for them to decompress a little bit,” said Carl Lindsay, lead construction representative for the Corps’ Fort Knox Resident Office. “With a training area like this we try to simulate realistic conditions for the cadets to be able to experience how they will serve.”
The $1.8 million project, constructed by Semper Tek, Lexington, Kentucky, created gravel access roads and a parking lot along with concrete pads for the temporary dining facility, latrines, showers, dumpsters and 35 tents, which will each sleep approximately 25-40 cadets comfortably.
Additionally, electric power was supplied to all tent pads and a water line installed to shower trailer pads and a new fire hydrant.
“We also constructed an overhead lightning protection system, which is fully functional and will help keep them safe when they’re using the facility during storms,” said Lindsay.
Construction is now complete with only minor seeding work for erosion control to take place before Cadets enter for training operations in late May.
“The Cadets will stay with us for the summer,” said Lindsay. “So from now until late August this place will be swarming with Cadets.”