WRIGHT-PATT TO REOPEN MAJOR GATE AT BASE
$1.3M upgrades for security complete at high-traffic location.
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE A major gateway closed for BASE — weeks to thousands of Wright-Patterson commuters during a $1.3 million security upgrade is scheduled to reopen Monday in Area B at Wright-Patterson, authorities say.
Base Gate 19B, off National Road, which typically averages about 11,000 vehicles a day, will return to 24-hour operations at midnight Monday, according to Wright-Patterson spokeswoman Marie Vanover.
“We’re finalizing the details on that and it’s our hope starting Monday morning that we’ll be back to normal operations,” Col. Bradley McDonald, installation commander, said in interview Friday. “... Part of our continuing ability to maintain a strong base is the ability to make sure that all of our installation entrance points are as secure as possible.”
Closed since early April, crews worked to add an overhead canopy, additional guard booths and an upgraded barrier system to prevent traffic intruding on base and to better protect sentries, a project official has said. Central NICC Joint Venture LLC, of Falls Church, Va., was the prime contractor.
The latest upgrade is among millions of dollars the Air Force has planned to increase security at the base as gate-related secu-
rity incidents have occurred in recent years.
The biggest disruption hap- pened in November 2015 when a Beavercreek man not authorized to be on the base was accused of driving through Gate 22B near Inter- state 675 and entered at least one restricted access building on foot before he was stopped by employees. The incident shut down gate entrances and roads, caused hundreds of employees to evacuate in two buildings, and led to a shel- ter in place order at a nearby child care center.
In 2015, Gate 12A had $1.3 million in security improve- ments. If congressional fund
ing is found, a new $12.6 million entryway could be built by 2019, consolidating Gates 26A off Ohio 235 near the main airfield and Gate 16A, a commercial truck inspection weigh point off Ohio 444.
With 19B set to reopen Monday, Gate 16B, an entrance off Kaufman Avenue which acted as an alternative route for morning rush hour traffic during construction, will close, Vanover said.
That entrance, near the Wright Brothers Monument, is normally shuttered.
Gate 22B, which had served as a 24-hour gate since April, will return to normal operating hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to the base.