Ongoing Tyndall Air Force Base rebuild prioritizes resilience
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – When Air Force planners saw Tyndall immediately after Hurricane Michael, they saw a blank slate to build a new base from scratch; a base of the future. Now that vision is coming to life.
It includes the $3 billion Natural Disaster Recovery Program, with 40 projects resulting in more than 120 facilities. Other projects bring the total to about $5 billion.
'What we're building here at Tyndall are resilient facilities with respect to another storm like Hurricane Michael. So, every facility that you see built on this installation is going to be built to withstand at least 165 mile per hour winds. We're also building them out at an elevation so that they will not be susceptible to storm surge from a future hurricane,' Air Force Civil Engineer Center Chief of Natural Disaster Recovery Robert Bartlow said.
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The program is broken into 11 zones.
'Each one of those zones roughly aligns with a mission capability. So, we have a zone that covers the new F-35 campus that's going to host three squadrons of F-35 that are already arriving here today. And then each of the other zones some focus on morale, recreation, and welfare,' Bartlow said.
One of the projects the airmen are most excited for is the marina. It'll offer a rooftop bar and restaurant overlooking the Gulf, and it's nearing completion. The marina will also house the outdoor recreation office. It overlooks a new dock and boat slips.
New ball fields just opened, and the base is hiring staff for the new pool, which opens this summer.
And they're finishing construction of the Air Force lodging facility. It has 360 individual rooms to host people coming through Tyndall for short-term missions or training. It should be open sometime this summer or early fall.
The rebuilding project is 15% complete. It should be at 30% by the end of the year.
The bulk of the projects are expected to be done by mid-2027, and the entire project should be completed by 2029.
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