Boson clears the field for readiness center

The Boson Co. Inc.’s construction crew puts a brick veneer on the higher areas of the building before the cold weather sets in. Photos courtesy of The Boson Co. Inc.

The construction site looked perfect at first glance.

The nice, big lawn at Camp Williams near Camp Douglas practically begged The Boson Co. Inc.’s construction team to build the Camp Douglas Readiness Center for the Wisconsin Army National Guard. To the naked eye, the site looked ready for building in July, especially after Boson removed three barracks from the general area.

But the eye, naked or otherwise, couldn’t grasp the troubles lurking below that innocent-looking patch of grass.

“There was stuff going everywhere under this site,” said Joe Dolezal, project manager, director of construction services and safety director for Boson. “The reason there were no buildings in the past is there is a maze of underground, private utilities infrastructure. There was gas, power, water, sanitary and storm water.

“The building had to fit within that.”

Dealing with underground utilities isn’t an unusual challenge for contractors. They call in Diggers Hotline, get the various lines tagged, make the necessary reroutes and start digging.

“The services belong to the military, so we couldn’t call Diggers Hotline,” Dolezal said. “I think most contractors would go, ‘Wow, that couldn’t have been fun.’

“If Diggers Hotline makes a mistake, it’s not our responsibility. Here, there was no Diggers Hotline to go back to.”

The construction team places structural-steel joists on the Camp Douglas Readiness Center.

So Boson did the next best thing. It brought in people from the Department of Military Affairs to help find the utilities, and the contractor hired a private locator to assist.

“We knew if we missed something, we’d have major problems,” Dolezal said. “We spent almost a month just doing that.

“We did so much planning, verifying, checking and rechecking that I personally felt we weren’t going to hit anything. It was a major struggle, but it went off without a hitch.”

And finally, in August, Boson set about constructing the single-story, 47,000-square-foot, military training center. The structure will accommodate 300 men and women and features a classroom auditorium, kitchen, vehicle maintenance bay, large assembly hall, a concrete-reinforced arms vault, regular classrooms and offices.

And as the job heads into December, the project is right on schedule, thanks, in part, to the team’s early prep work during a lull between the bid award in April and the contract award in July while the state generated more funds for the job. The roof is on, the brick veneer is partially installed, window installations are under way, the heating equipment is on site, and the mechanical rough-ins are rolling.

“There is not another place like this in the state right now,” Dolezal said. “It’s the headquarters for the 32nd Infantry Brigade. It’s something the Army National Guard is very excited to have, and they’re going to be very proud of it.”

- Chris Thompson

Project Essentials

Project Name: Camp Douglas Readiness Center
Location: Camp Douglas
Owner: Wisconsin Department of State Facilities
General Contractor: The Boson Co. Inc., Marshfield
Architect: Fischer-Fischer-Theis Inc., Waukesha
Estimated Project Cost: $7.6 million
Start Date: July 2006
Scheduled Completion: July 2007

Project fact

Every worker on the job submitted to a background check. On the full project, there were close to 500 people who had to be cleared.