Sen. McSally says Fort Huachuca project set to resume after delay

PHOENIX — A delayed $30 million project at an Army base in southern Arizona is set to proceed in 2020, Sen. Martha McSally said Thursday.

McSally said the Fort Huachuca ground transport equipment building had been delayed because environmental cleanup hadn’t been completed at the site.

Because of that delay, the building was among the military projects that lost funding when $3.6 billion in Department of Defense funding was reallocated to border wall construction last year.

McSally said the funding for the project has been fully restored with the cleanup complete.

“I pushed heavily on DoD to restore this funding upon completion of the environmental cleanup, and I’m pleased to say they heard my call and are moving expeditiously to execute this project during this calendar year,” the Republican said in a press release.

The Fort Huachuca funding was deferred in September after the Pentagon shifted funds to the construction of 175 miles of border wall.

The Arizona building was one of 127 military projects affected by the funding reallocation.

Michael Boardman, president of the Fort Huachuca 50, the group of civic leaders who support the base, thanked McSally and other members of the Arizona congressional delegation who helped get the project back on track.

“This construction will replace the last World War II-era wooden building on the Fort and will provide critical maintenance services for the highly specialized vehicles and test equipment of at the Electronic Proving Ground,” he said in the release.

McSally aired her frustration last year about the cleanup not being completed.

“The fact of the matter is that had the Army completed this sooner, the project would not have been delayed and would not have even been up for discussion,” McSally said in September.

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