RAF Mildenhall, England -- The 100th Civil Engineer Squadron Pavement and Construction Equipment Section began renovations to update base infrastructure at RAF Mildenhall, England.
The section’s members, known as Dirt Boyz, are removing fencing along the road to improve pedestrian access to parking behind the fence and reduce overcrowding that occurs in the military personnel flight parking lot.
“The MPF parking lot fills up and there’s often no parking spots, especially during peak permanent change of station season,” said Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Elwell, 100th CES heavy equipment horizontal engineer supervisor. “The plan is to take this fence out so people can use the parking lot behind the fence to park and then walk straight across.”
In addition to extracting hedge fencing, the Dirt Boyz are also working to pull out obsolete vehicle barriers that have been in place for more than a decade.
“We’re taking out the pop-up barriers,” said Airman 1st Class Tyler Miller, 100th CES pavement and heavy equipment operator apprentice. “We’re removing them on both ends, over by Mickey’s Diner and then at the roundabout at the Bird in Hand gate.”
Once installed as a security measure to control the flow of traffic, the barriers are being removed as they no longer serve a role in the base’s defense posture.
“They’re a little bit decrepit, and they’ve been worn down from all the base traffic over the years,” said Elwell. “We decided they weren’t serving a purpose, so we made the decision to pull them out and replace the barriers with asphalt.”
The renovations are eliminating past base structures to pave the way for a smoother future.
“With the older barriers, the longer they’re around, the more you have to maintain them,” said Elwell. “Our goal is to improve vehicle traffic, and we’re trying to make it better for people to drive off base, so it’s better to just take them out completely.“