URBAN ASSAULT COURSE - WRA provided complete architectural – engineering design and construction support services for the Urban Assault Course at Fort Carson, Colorado. The USACE-Omaha District directed/managed this specific delivery order awarded under WRA’s Huntsville RTLP ID/IQ contract.

The Urban Assault Course is used to train individual soldiers, squads, and platoons on tasks necessary to operate within a built-up/urban area. It provides squad- or platoon-size units with a facility to train and evaluate urban operations tasks. With the exception of Station 3, Grenadier Gunnery, the Urban Assault Course UAC is not intended for live-fire training. The project consisted of preparing a standard design UAC following the most recent Huntsville standard range layout (September 2007). The facility contained the following 5 stations:

Station 1 – Individual & Team
Station 2 – Squad & Platoon Trainer
Station 3 – Grenadier Gunnery Trainer
Station 4 – Urban Offense/Defense Trainer
Station 5 – Underground Trainer

Ft Carson’s desire to provide training facilities with long-term, sustainable training objectives resulted in Stations 1 and 2 being designed with concrete block walls (CMU) rather than the typical wood structures. This change was made to minimize future maintenance requirements and cost. This CMU wall design concept has since been incorporated into the Huntsville Range Design Guide (June 2010) as a standard. WRA also utilized the existing terrain elevation slope to design the underground trainer opening to daylight which eliminates the need for mechanical ventilation equipment.

The Range Operations and Control Area (ROCA) included the following standard buildings: Operations / Storage Building, Ammunition Breakdown Building, and Vaulted Latrine. The building designs are considered “smart” designs that incorporate practical, energy saving design elements meeting the intent of LEED guidance within the range program amount.

The design was completed on time and within budget. The construction award was significantly below WRA’s construction cost estimate and construction was completed in 2011.

Project Components

Project Management
Site Planning
Line-of-Sight Analysis
Stormwater Design
Channel Stabilization
ACOE Wetland Coordination
Permitting Facilitation
Mass Grade Optimization
Advance Terrain Modeling
Construction Documents
Specifications (SpecsIntact)
M-CACES Cost Estimates
Urban Assault Course - UAC