[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 30, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1599]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          EARMARK DECLARATION

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                          HON. KEVIN McCARTHY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 29, 2008

  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican 
Leadership standards on earmarks, I am submitting the following 
information for publication in the Congressional Record regarding an 
earmark I received as part of H.R. 6599, the Military Construction and 
Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2009.

  Requesting Member: Congressman Kevin McCarthy.
  BM Number: H.R. 6599.
  Account: Military Construction, Air Force.
  Project Amount: $6,000,000.
  Legal Name of Recipient Military Installation: Edwards Air Force 
Base.
  Address of Recipient Military Installation: 1 S. Rosamond Blvd., 
Edwards AFB, CA.
  Description of Request: This funding would complete construction of 
the main base runway at Edwards Air Force Base, CA. The funding will be 
used to complete paved shoulders on the runway and account for extra 
costs in the overall runway replacement project from items such as the 
stabilization of over 41,000 cubic yards of both unsuitable and 
unstable soil.
  The main base runway, which supports almost every flight operation at 
Edwards Air Force Base, as well as space shuttle landings when 
necessary, is over 50 years old and is rapidly degrading as a result of 
Alkali-Silica Reaction (ASR), a reaction between the cement and the 
aggregate that creates map cracking, scaling and spalling of the 
concrete. Emergency Foreign Object Damage (FOD) repairs have forced 
runway closures affecting 10 to 15 flights for each closure. No other 
runways at Edwards AFB can safely support the current and projected 
test operations without significant test mission delays, and temporary 
relocation of these missions is not feasible; however, many of the 
current and planned test missions can be supported by a temporary 
runway.
  This project was programmed by the Air Force in 2003 for FY06, and 
was incrementally funded over 3 years (FY06, FY07 and FY08). After the 
project was programmed, the cost of construction materials escalated 
dramatically, eliminating all management reserve and resulting in a 
reduction in the planned scope of the project. Providing the final 
$6,000,000 in FY09 will complete the project as originally scoped, 
avoid contractor demobilization and remobilization, and avoid 
reconstitution of the temporary runway to support this work, saving the 
government over $4,000,000 in cost avoidance on the temporary runway 
alone.

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