According to the Undersecretary of Defense, soldier retention is 15 percent higher for those stationed on installations with superior housing and community life. To that end, the Department of Defense (DoD) will spend $16 billion over the next 30 years modernizing 185,000 housing units. In the next 10 years alone, the U.S. Army will renovate or rebuild 84,000 homes.

Under the Military Housing Privatization Initiative, Tetra Tech has partnered with Sydney, Australia-based Actus Lend Lease (www.actuslendlease.com) for its Hawaii and United States mainland projects. This initiative provides for the transfer of military housing assets to private sector companies. Tetra Tech and Actus have closely collaborated with the military stakeholders in developing our innovative approaches to environmental health and safety.

Tetra Tech’s support covers a number of services, including environmental management and planning, technical regulatory agency negotiations, site assessment, soil and groundwater investigations, risk assessments, soil management, unexploded ordnance (UXO) surveys, and public outreach.

With nearly 40,000 residential units in its portfolio, equating to more than 30 percent of all privatized military development worldwide, Actus Lend Lease is creating master planned mixed-use, environmentally sustainable communities throughout Hawaii and the United States mainland. One of its success stories is the Kalakaua Community at Schofield Barracks.

This is the largest government privatization project to date in the United States and is the world’s largest solar-powered community, providing approximately 30 percent of its electrical needs through photovoltaic panels.

Other Actus communities that Tetra Tech is supporting include Hickam Air Force Base (AFB), Schofield Barracks, Fort Shafter, Wheeler Field, Helemano Military Reservation, Aliamanu Military Reservation, Tripler Army Medical Center, U.S. Coast Guard Red Hill in Hawaii, Fort Hood, Davis-Monthan AFB, Holloman AFB, Los Angeles AFB, Fort Knox, Yuma Proving Grounds, Fort Riley, Lowry Range, Fort Leavenworth, Fort Sam Houston, Fort Polk, Redstone Arsenal, Fort Rucker, and Forts Myer and McNair, along with other installations.