By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

BLACK Construction Corporation has been awarded a $41.9 million firm-fixed-price contract for the construction of a Global Hawk aircraft maintenance and operations complex at Andersen Air Force Base.
Work is expected to be completed by May 2009, which is when the full complement of the planned Global Hawk Guam deployment is completed.
Black Construction won over 24 proposals solicited and two offers received by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific.
The Global Hawk project is just the latest of a string of projects won by the company from the military.
Last year, Black Construction also won a $49.8 million contract for the Alpha and Bravo wharf improvements planned for Naval Station Marianas at Polaris Point.
The work, which is set to be finished next year, includes sheet pile bulkhead improvements to the existing Alpha and Bravo wharves and a concrete wharf extension to wharf Bravo.
Black Construction also has wide experience in working on projects inside Andersen Air Force Base. The company just recently designed and built a new state-of-the-art aircraft maintenance hangar at Andersen that can accommodate a number of high-tech bombers.
Black Construction expects to complete its Global Hawk project in two years, just in time for a Global Hawk contingent of three planes that would be permanently based on Guam, with up to seven Global Hawks deployed on Guam by 2013.
Ground has already been broken for the new operations and maintenance hangars for the high-tech planes.
According to Air Force officials, Guam will serve as the hub for the Global Hawks, with Andersen serving as the “landing and recovery” base for the base while Hickam Air Force base in Hawaii will serve as the “command and control.”