USACE Sacramento District advances new aircraft maintenance campus at Hill Air Force Base

Official Statements

• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District, November 10: “New aircraft need more than pilots and runways. They need the infrastructure where maintainers can make major repairs, replace specialized components and keep them ready to fly. At Hill Air Force Base, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Sacramento District is helping build that capacity.

  With a groundbreaking held in spring 2026, construction is advancing on utilities and other infrastructure for the East Campus, a planned $1.2 billion Air Force investment over the next five years to support F-35 Lightning II fighters and T-7A Red Hawk training aircraft.

  Work on fire suppression, sewer and communications systems is already substantially complete. Those systems will serve six planned facilities designed to accommodate growing aircraft maintenance and training needs.

  With a goal to complete the infrastructure by 2032, the Sacramento District is also changing how it delivers the work, using contracting approaches that allow the Air Force to prioritize construction and bring builders into design decisions earlier.

  “Delivering this campus takes getting the engineering, project management, construction and business right,” said Col. Robert McTighe, Sacramento District commander. “By bringing those pieces together early, we’re maximizing our ability to deliver the infrastructure the Air Force needs safely, with quality, on time and within budget.”

  The infrastructure project includes airfield paving and lighting, water and electrical systems, roads and sidewalks. Rather than award separate contracts for each, the district selected one contractor and divided the work into individually priced packages.

  That arrangement allowed the Air Force to fund the utility systems requiring the most construction time first while keeping one contractor responsible for coordinating the work, said Lee Roach, a project manager with the district’s Air Force Project Office.

  Roach said the approach provided flexibility “while locking in overall project costs and ensuring that a single contractor would maintain consistency across all campus support elements.”

  Site preparation is targeted for completion by September 2028.

  Meanwhile, design is underway for the Egress Facility and a T-7A Depot Maintenance Hangar, both awarded in 2026. The hangar will support major maintenance for the Air Force’s new training aircraft.

  For its next two F-35 facilities, a composite repair and training facility and a maintenance hangar project, the team will use progressive design-build, an approach that brings the government, designers and builders together early to develop the design, schedule and construction price. Equipment and technology specialists will also help shape the facilities’ requirements.

  The acquisition will use Other Transaction Authority, which gives the government flexibility to tailor the agreement and selection process to the project. The district plans to seek proposals and award the combined project in fiscal 2027.

  Developing facilities together could attract more competition and identify ways to coordinate construction and deliver the buildings sooner than separate, sequential projects, Roach said.

  Additional projects in coming years will ensure as the campus comes into service, it will give Hill’s maintainers more space and specialized facilities to keep aircraft ready for their missions.”