Price and his team highlighted the Salang Tunnel Improvement project as one recent representative success. Focused on the 1.6-mile-long (2.7 kilometers) mountain tunnel linking Kabul to the primary trade routes from the north, the improvements involved road surface, lighting, exhaust fans, and power plant upgrades in a single construction season.
“We couldn’t shut down the tunnel for an extended period of time because of the importance of that route,” Price said. “We used an Afghan firm to do the work. It may have been a relatively small dollar value compared to many of the other projects we are doing over here, but we were able to coordinate across all the ministries, all the coalition partners, use an Afghan firm, and improve this vital line of transportation.”
The use of an Afghan firm on the Salang Tunnel project was just one illustration of the “capacity building” that TAA views as another broad area of success.
Underlying every successful program example offered by TAA representatives was the critical value of “reachback” and the achievement of a command vision to support contingency operations like Afghanistan with expertise and resources from across USACE.
“Right now, on the ground we have about 20,000 Afghans building facilities for Afghans,” Price said. “But that’s just a snapshot in time. Over the course of the program, we have trained hundreds of companies. And we also have Afghan quality assurance representatives – engineers who work for us and represent the Corps in some areas. Some started out as members of our team and have gone on to start their own companies. And that has all helped to build capacity for Afghanistan.”
“Just two weeks ago, I met with a group of women who have formed an organization of women-owned construction businesses,” added Lt. Col. Gary Davis II, TAA contracting chief. “As you can imagine, here in the Middle East, and particularly in Afghanistan, that sort of thing did not exist 10 years ago. But now you’ve got a group that has 30 members whose companies are performing on our contracts – and performing well.”
In another example of long-term benefits resulting from USACE programs, Roger Vogler, TAA engineering and construction chief, highlighted a recent meeting with the Afghan Builders Association, noting, “Because of USACE’s involvement in construction in Afghanistan, they want to partner with us to develop their national codes so that they have higher safety standards and longer-lasting facilities. So, from an engineering standpoint, one of the biggest things we have accomplished, as far as capacity building, is to help them develop building codes and material testing standards.”
Underlying every successful program example offered by TAA representatives was the critical value of “reachback” and the achievement of a command vision to support contingency operations like Afghanistan with expertise and resources from across USACE.
“The USACE reachback model is proven and now in place so that we will know how to do it for future contingencies,” Vogler observed. “And that was the intent all along; so that in the future, we won’t have to send so many people over to a contingency operation.”
Along with the reachback vision’s successful maturation and implementation, USACE has been the beneficiary of an extensive “lessons learned” process capturing successful Iraq and Afghanistan milestones in a playbook that can be applied to future contingency operations.
TAA activities are clearly directed toward an overall drawdown and project completion.
Afghan utility technicians and their U.S. Army counterpart, Staff Sgt. Scott Michael, assemble the air disconnect switch as part of the Sangin substation power upgrade project in early March 2012. USACE photo
One acknowledged result has been less emphasis on helping lower-performing contractors in the name of capacity building and more emphasis on aggressive contract enforcement to deliver projects on time and on schedule.
While the current focus remains on completing existing projects by the end of this year, some of the larger project schedules extend into 2015 and beyond.
“There will probably be 50 to 60 Corps employees here at the end of December/beginning of January,” Darrow said. “And we will still have a robust team of about 90 Afghan quality assurance engineers.”
“The quality assurance engineers are assigned on every one of our ANSF projects,” Price added. “They also augment our workforce. So as we move forward, we will rely on them in areas we can’t get to or we get to less often.”
It is likely that TAA will be closed at the end of December, with TAD’s Middle East District taking over the remaining projects.
Col. Vincent Quarles, TAD’s Middle East District commander, draws on his own experiences as a former commander of the Afghanistan Engineer District-South from July 2012 through July 2013, and former deputy commander of TAD, when he asserts that the district is prepared to assume any remaining projects in Afghanistan.
“We’re here to get the mission done that we have been given,” Quarles said. “And we’re not just in Afghanistan. We want to partner, understand requirements and resources necessary, and then get things delivered.”
“The Middle East District has worked throughout the Middle East,” he explained. “They are familiar with the Middle East. They are familiar with providing folks forward and, since the start of these contingency events, we have probably pushed forward hundreds of folks to work with contingency districts forward. And, at the same time, we’ve also provided reachback support – like engineering and other capabilities necessary to get work done in those theaters.”
Asked about any unique challenges that USACE might face in Afghanistan following the military’s withdrawal, Quarles replied, “The challenges aren’t really different from those in many other locations where we work. We’ll align with our operational partners to see what the conditions may be like. A lot of work has been done to build capacity. For instance, we have a number of local Afghan engineers who are already working with us. And they’ve been doing so for the last decade or so. They are already going out and helping us with the quality assurance at some of our more remote locations.
“We’re here to get the mission done that we have been given,” he summarized. “And we’re not just in Afghanistan. We want to partner, understand requirements and resources necessary, and then get things delivered.”
Along with the likely inactivation of TAA, Eyre pointed to a continuing transformation of the Transatlantic Division toward what has been coined as “TAD Enduring.” The evolved organization will feature a smaller headquarters that will rely on USACE Headquarters and the Middle East District to continue its focus throughout the CENTCOM AOR.
“Because of our lessons learned, we will have the flexibility, the scalability, and the agility to do that,” he concluded. “So that if there is another contingency in the CENTCOM AOR, we can again expand and support accordingly.”