435th CTS proves one-stop shop for construction at RAF Mildenhall

  • Published
  • By Karen Abeyasekere
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  It took just one month, 15 men and 17 rolls of steel to build a K-Span facility on the south side of base here, which will be used as a storage area for equipment.

The men - 14 Airmen and one German national, all from the 435th Military Construction Flight, 435th Construction and Training Squadron - are from a geographically-separated unit near Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and have been here since Jan. 9 building the structure.

They were assisted for part of that time by four Airmen from the 100th Civil Engineer Squadron Structures flight, and two from the 48th Civil Engineer Squadron, RAF Lakenheath - none of whom had previously worked on K-Spans.

The K-Span, a half-moon-shaped building, built completely of steel, is designed to withstand the strong winds and bad weather that often occurs in England. It is made of arched panels seamed together to form an economical and watertight steel structure.

The 435th MCF is a relatively new unit, explained Tech. Sgt. Thomas Riggsbee, NCO in charge of structures, and is just into its third year. They are the only Air Force K-Span capability in U.S. Air Forces in Europe.

It's a unique flight and falls under the 435th CTS part of the 435th Contingency Response Group, 435th Air Ground Operations Wing. Typically, 435th MCF taskings are assigned from the director of logistics, installations and mission support, on USAFE staff. The flight has constructed projects within the theater and has performed work in Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Montenegro, Romania and the United Kingdom.

"We make buildings for humanitarian reasons, exercise-related constructions and military construction projects," Riggsbee said. "Our unit is made up of several parts: the mil-con flight, training section [which operates Exercise Silver Flag for USAFE] and depot flight, which installs mobile aircraft arresting system units. Our depot flight is the only entity in USAFE that installs, certifies and refurbishes aircraft arresting systems across Europe."

The 435th MCF handles everything from start to finish, said Tech Sgt. Jeremiah Celis, 435th CTS NCO in charge of engineering.

"We cut out the need for the manufacturer, because we do everything from in-house design, ordering and shipping materials, to the actual construction," he said.

The hub of the entire process is a panel-former machine, into which sheets of raw steel are fed. While being fed through the machine, the steel forms panels before shaping and crimping them.

The panels are 90-feet long and are shaped into a curve. Five panels are stacked on top of each other, and connected by a seaming machine, The stack of panels is known as a 'pick.'

Celis explained that as theirs is a training squadron, when they have large construction projects requiring more manpower than they have, they get help from civil engineer squadrons within USAFE.

"If we have more than one project, then we split our team and call on members from the relevant [squadrons] to help us," he said. "It means we can train their people, and they help us at the same time - it's one of the advantages of our team.

"Each time a USAFE base gets a rotation of people from [their civil engineer squadron] that we train, the end result is another construction project completed. During this project, we had four 100th CES troops and two 48th CES troops helping us; the benefit for us is that we had more people to help with the various stages of construction," Celis said. "It means we can have a full operation without having to stop - it would slow the process down if we didn't have enough people.

"This way, it [enhances] our assembly line and gets the job done much faster."

Riggsbee agreed.

"The heart of the process is the machine, but it definitely takes a team of people to make all the construction happen," he said.

When the first pick is in place, one person sits on it to help guide the next one into place, before the two are seamed together. Finally, it's all welded into place.

Training the RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath troops reaped benefits all round.

"It gave me confidence and knowledge, so next time I'm tasked with helping build a K-Span structure, I'll be able to play a larger role in the construction process," said Airman 1st Class Ryan Roy, 100th CES Structures, who was one of the Airmen trained by the 435th CTS.

His coworker, Airman 1st Class Joseph Hamilton, also one of the four 100th CES troops who assisted in the construction, agreed.

"The K-Span is one big project with larger groups of people from all career fields giving their input from their [Air Force specialty code] perspective," he said.

"It's helped me realize the hard work and attention to detail that it takes to construct something that on a normal day you would drive by and not even think about," said Hamilton. "This was a great experience - we've learned so much in such a short time. I think we will benefit in the future from this, because if we're ever tasked to build another [K-Span] then we have the knowledge and hands-on experience to do it faster and more efficiently, which will save Air Force assets."



K-Span facts and figures:

The shape and strength of the materials used on a K-Span build means the need for interior supports such as beams or columns, is eliminated. It's joined together using a seaming machine, rather than nuts and bolts.

At the initial stage of the project, angle iron is set to the width of the K-Span structure where the bottom of the arch is going to be positioned; this is the track in which the arch sits, and is then welded to a bracket-shaped piece of steel which runs the entire length of the building, on both sides, Tech. Sgt. Jeremiah Celis, 435th Construction and Training Squadron NCO in charge of engineering explained.

"The raw steel comes in rolls, which are put on a panel-former machine. The flat piece of steel is fed through the machine, through various parts which in turn form the panels," he said. "When the panels come out of the machine, they get measured and marked before being fed back into the second half of the machine, which curves and crimps each panel."

At that stage, once the panel is in its final form, it takes a minimum of seven people to carry the 90-foot, 400-pound panel. The seven-man crew carries the panel to the pick assembly area, where between two and four other panels are then stacked on top of it and clamped together before the edges are crimped and seamed, using a 75-pound seaming machine, operated by just one person at a time. The stack of panels is known as a pick.

The panel former is at least 20 years old, and cost $700,000. Each roll of steel that gets put through the machine weighs an average of between 5,000 and 5,500 pounds, and forms about 12 panels per roll. At the start of the process, each roll is 24 inches wide; by the end, the finished panel is just 12 inches wide, after being shaped and formed by the machine.

Once the measurements are checked, the radius is correct and the pick is formed and seamed together, it is then attached to a crane using lifting brackets, timber and ropes as tag lines, so it can easily be controlled when in the air.

It's then swung by crane from the assembly station to the angle iron [fixed on the floor] and attached, before being anchored to rolls of steel to square the building.