Buildings
Security Firm Creating Middle Eastern-style Village in Arkansas
(archrecord.construction.com - 03/08/2006)
By Sam
Lubell
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| Image courtesy Olive
Group |
Just across the Mississippi River from
Memphis, Tennessee, a British company is recreating something
not-so-local: a Middle Eastern town.
Actually it's a training center that
the military, private security companies, and even diplomatic
officers can use to simulate conditions in cities and villages
in areas like Iraq and Afghanistan.
The U.K.-led, Dubai-based company, called
Olive Group, specializes in creating what it calls "risk
mitigation solutions." The firm started building the
900,000-square-foot project on February 28. It will be located
in Crawfordsville, Arkansas, on what was formerly a soybean
field.
When the the $18 million project is
complete (the first quarter is expected to be done by late
summer) the complex will include nine city blocks, including
residential, government, and university buildings. Most structures
will be constructed of concrete bloc with plywood interior
walls, and some concrete columns and parapets. They will include
typologies typically seen in the Middle East, like high, gated
houses, arched entrances, narrow alleys, and courtyards. The
facility will also include soccer fields, a school, and an
open-air bazaar. Practical elements will include a training
school, a driving track, and firing ranges. Technology like
smoke machines and speakers will be integrated into the buildings
to simulate various situations, such as field battle.
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Such complexes are similar to recreated
battlefields that the military builds, often called Military
Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT), or Joint Readiness Training
Centers. Such facilities were built at bases in Fort Polk,
Louisiana, and in Fort McClellan, Alabama. But often such
sites, says Smith, who served in the military in Afghanistan,
are not only less extensive, but they're generic or outdated.
Existing MOUTs are often geared toward townscapes in Europe.
"Most of the ones we did in the
past, you would have thought we were going to invade New England,"
says Tom McConnell, project manager for the site's engineers,
Memphis-based Pickering, which has worked on similar complexes
before.
The military, Smith adds, is catching
up with geographically-updated townscapes. But, he says, "we
can build this a lot faster." The company is financing
the complex on its own, hoping that the military or various
commercial entities will take interest once it's complete.
The complex's edifices, points out Smith, can also be found
in places like Africa or South America, so the area could
also be used to simulate foreign environments, if necessary.
And if people want to rent out the space for another use?
"We're not discounting any type of business arrangement,"
says Smith.
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