Back Garco awarded military contract $10.3 million deal to install three fuel tanks at Navy base By Tom Sowa The Spokesman Review Garco Construction of Spokane is about to start work on a second large contract to install fuel tanks at a U.S. military base. The U.S. Navy recently awarded Garco a $10.3 million contract to install three new steel air-fuel storage tanks for the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in New Orleans. Two years ago Garco won a $9.1 million contract to remove old fuel tanks, install two new ones and fuel hydrant systems at the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. The North Dakota project runs through November. The New Orleans job should start in April and conclude in early 2005 The two projects will be managed concurrently, said Garco Project Manager Hollis Barnett. The new project involves taking out and dismantling underground steel fuel tanks, then replacing them with three steel tanks each able to hold 12,000 barrels of fuel. Instead of being stored udnerground, the new tanks will be above ground. Garco will send a core team of four or five workers to manage the New Orleans job. it will then hire at least 20 workers from the local community to handle the remainder of the work, said Barnett. Both projects stem from Garco's 1996 decision to branch out from commercial construction into military and government services. In 1996, Garco bid on a project that involved similar fuel-tank work at Spokane International Airport. Normally, contracts are awarded to companies with proven experience, but Garco convinced aiport officials it could handle the job, Barnett said. The project led to contracts for installation of tanks at Fairchild Air Force Base, he said. "We have done all the (tank-related) work at Fairchild for the last five years," he said. Six competing bids were submitted for the New Orleans project. Three companies were deemed technically capable of doing the work, and the government chose Garco, said Barnett. Such projects are not awarded solely on lowet price. The government uses both cost and technical ability of the conatractor before deciding on a company, Barnett Said. We've been rated pretty high for the work we've done for the government," he said. About $2 million of the new contract will go toward hiring Spokane contractor McClintock & Turk as the mechanical subcontractor that installs the fuel-tank piping, said Barnett. McClintock & Turk also did similar work with Garco at Fairchild and in Grand Forks. Back