| A military vehicle maintenance facility is one in which military vehicles and equipment are kept in top operating condition to support soldiers in the field. Programming such a facility can pose some intriguing problems. In the case of the National Guard, for example, the design must balance what is allowed in the National Guard Bureau’s (NGB’s) programming document (military form 1391) with what is actually requested by the end users to fulfill their dedicated missions. In most cases, the 1391 allows the space of individual areas to be adjusted up or down a maximum of 10 percent as long as the total area of the individual spaces remains the same. This adjustment does not always allow for what is needed at an individual facility; however, and the balancing act can place the programmer/designer in a precarious position between users and NGB.
Over the last several years, PB has been involved in the design of several major military maintenance facilities. During the course of our work we learn several lessons and incorporated some unique design components.
Solving Space Constraints
One unique problem is the size and configuration of the maintenance bays. The NGB lists the acceptable vehicle maintenance bay size at 9.6 m by 9.6 m (32 feet by 32 feet). The length of some of the military’s larger vehicles, like the M88 recovery vehicle, M1 tank, HEMTT, and HEMTT-PLS, can be longer than 9.6 m (32 feet) with their miscellaneous appendages.
Figure 1: Designing bays back-to-back allows accomodation of long vehicles.
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Figure 2: Utility rack with lubricant reels mounted on it and lube lines feeding to under-floor trench, whcih serves as a drain. |
Figure 3: Segmented restroom facilities allow for changing ratios of male/female personnel. |
Acronyms that are useful to know when dealing with National Guard vehicle maintenance facilities include:
• FMTV: Family of medium tactical vehicles, which are medium-sized transport or delivery trucks.
• HET: Heavy equipment transporter, which is commonly called an eighteen-wheeler truck in the civilian world.
• HEMTT: Heavy expanded mobility tactical truck. This is the workhorse of the heavy-duty military trucks.
• HMMWV: Highly mobile multipurpose wheeled vehicle, which, in the civilian world, is commonly called a Hummer. |
We solved this problem by placing two bays back to back, essentially creating a 9.6 m (32 feet) wide by 19.2 m (64 feet) long bay. In addition, a circulation space of 1.2 m (4 feet) can be added at each end to create a 21.6-m (72-foot) -long bay (Figure 1). When the end user takes possession of the completed facility, bays can be assigned to different vehicles according to length. For example an extra long HEMTT vehicle (10.2 m, or 34 feet long) can be assigned to one side and a shorter HMMWV (4.8 m, or 16 feet long) can be assigned to the other.
Getting Lubricants In and Exhaust Fumes Out
Another unique design challenge is how to get lubricants into the bay and exhaust fumes out. A military vehicle maintenance bay is required to have an overhead bridge crane to cover the entire bay, so we could not run overhead lines and ducts.
Our solution was to construct a utility rack in the bay that the lubricant reels can be mounted on, and let the lube lines be run under the floor before emerging along the wall to be plumbed back to the central lube dispensing room. Similarly, the exhaust fumes can also be run under the floor until reaching a wall before being run to an exhaust fan to the outside.
Typically, we try to keep all lubricant lines exposed (not under slab) for maintenance and so that any problems can be seen easily prior to becoming an environmental issue. Normally, the problem of putting lubricant lines in a sealed trench is that the trenches never seal completely, so we mounted the lines on the side wall of the trench and let the trench serve as a drain, as shown in Figure 2.
“Right” Number of Restrooms for Each Gender
Another design challenge is the size and configuration of restrooms and how to provide the correct number of men’s/women’s restroom, shower, and locker facilities. Usually, these facilities are used by full-time guard personnel during the week and part-time guard personnel during the weekends. The ratio of men to women can vary greatly across the county and also between full- and part-time guard personnel. In addition, the male/female ratio in the guard is constantly changing from near 50/50 to 75 male/25 female, but we cannot limit ourselves to any one scenario because these facilities have to remain in service for up to 50 years.
Our proposed solution involves the use of segmented restroom facilities. A portion of the space is always male, a portion is always female, and two portions can be dedicated for use by either gender by just locking or unlocking doors A, B, and C as needed (Figure 3). This solution is very important because, again, the 1391 allows only a certain area for restroom/ locker/shower facilities depending on the number of personnel serving that facility.
Combining Facilities
Having several divisions or units combine their facilities is one way that end users have gotten larger spaces and facilities than would have been allowed otherwise by NGB. For example, they have combined group space, such as locker and break rooms.
Some of the groups that could be included in a maintenance facility are:
• Combined Support Maintenance Shop (CSMS). A direct and general support maintenance facility established for the repair and servicing of federally owned property issued to the National Guard.
• Mobilization and Training Equipment Site (MATES). An activity located at a military facility for receiving, storing, issuing, and performing maintenance on federally owned supplies, heavy equipment, and associated propositioned equipment.
• Unit Training Equipment Site (UTES). A consolidation of organizational equipment located at or in close proximity to and serving an authorized training site for the primary purpose of receiving, storing, issuing, and performing maintenance of federally owned supplies, heavy equipment, and associated with vehicle equipment and materials.
• Organizational Maintenance Shop (OMS). An organizational level maintenance activity established to perform maintenance of federally owned property.
Conclusion
Although NGB places many restrictions on the programmer/designer of National Guard vehicle maintenance facilities, both NGB and the end user can be satisfied if we exercise alittle creativity and smart design. Our group has been a leader in the industry in all types of vehicle maintenance facilities for more than twenty years, and these recent lessons learned have added additional skills to our toolbox. |
Adam Manuel, AIA is a lead architect with the Fleet & Facilities Division of PB Transit & Rail Systems, Inc. His principal responsibilities include preparation of facility master plans, facility conceptual designs, site selection studies, facility design criteria, equipment selection, specification and layout, construction documents, time and motion studies, work flow analysis, and time standards. He has been involved in the planning and design of maintenance and operations facilities for transit systems, military, municipalities, utilities, and private concerns throughout the U.S and Canada.
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