The design-build of a U.S. Embassy Compound in Kyiv includes: a five-story Office Building; a Marine Security Guard Quarters facility; Consolidated Support Annex/Warehouse; Compound Recreational Facility and Cabana; utility building; and a parking structure.
Planning and scheduling are critical when working in remote locations of the world. For the Kyiv NEC project, this included two phases of design/build. The original contract period for the first phase was 32 months. Nearly all of the construction materials and equipment came from the U.S. As such, the supply chain for getting these materials form the U.S. to the project site was a major undertaking. Procurement of equipment and materials from the United States generally lasted 12 to 24 weeks from the time a requisition was written to the arrival of materials onsite. The schedule also had to account for the bitter cold throughout the winter months (November through March). During the initial structural phase of the project, site operations worked six days a week, to complete the concrete foundations of the super-structures of the new Chancery prior to the onset of the first winter. This was accomplished from September through November 2009. Once the winter weather took hold, progress was much slower, but continued at a steady pace throughout the winter until the super-structure was finally topped out in July 2010, two months ahead of schedule. Despite these challenges, substantial completion for the new Embassy compound was achieved in September 2011, two months ahead of schedule and within budget.
As the project was nearing completion in May 2011, the client awarded BLHI a major change order to add a new building onto the compound to accommodate the USAID Mission to Ukraine. BLHI immediately began the design and construction of this new building, while allowing permanent Embassy personnel to occupy and utilize the rest of the compound for normal operations. Through careful planning, BLHI completed the new USAID annex in July 2012, more than three months ahead of the original construction schedule.