New McMurdo Station Construction

So they've been working on plans to rebuild McMurdo since the year I can down here.  It's taken years of back and forth but they're actually going to officially start construction this coming February.  The first building is actually going to be the IT building, YAY!  We call it IT&C here because Comms, the folks who setup and maintain everything radio related is rolled into IT.  They've already done some minor construction to support the more major construction coming up.  When I got here they were working on laying a ton of cable trays around the edges of town.  As things where built here before it was very ad-hoc, so they needed a building so they built one and just added cabling the best they could.  So instead we're going to have a large fiber optic ring that goes around the outside of town to connect all the buildings.  Because it's a ring that gives some redundancy in path ways for communications. So if someone running a backhoe accidentally severs a fiber line then communications can still flow in the other direction. So construction of that ring has been going on and should finish up this following summer.  Then they'll begin construction on the first major building change in February.  Then that IT building should be done in 2020 for us to move into.  It'll be cool to have everyone in the same place.  Right now IT&C are located in like 7 different buildings spread around town.  So here are a couple pics and couple web links talking about the upcoming construction and what the station is supposed to look like in 2027-ish I think.

 

 

This is the type of cable tray that has been constructed in a big ring around town to carry a bunch of fiber optic cables.

This is the type of cable tray that has been constructed in a big ring around town to carry a bunch of fiber optic cables.

This is an artist rendering of what the new building will look like when it's done.  Everything to the left of the red line exists currently, and everything to the right will be new.  Fun fact, that drive through looking opening in the bui…

This is an artist rendering of what the new building will look like when it's done.  Everything to the left of the red line exists currently, and everything to the right will be new.  Fun fact, that drive through looking opening in the building isn't a drive thru.  All the snow modelling they did during the design of the building showed that a significant amount of snow would build up behind the building.  So they added that little through way so the wind could blow through and scour that snow away, and it brought that snow build up way down. 

Here is the article about the new construction coming soon. https://future.usap.gov/construction-begins-on-itc-building/

Here is more info about the future state of the Station.  https://future.usap.gov/mcmurdo/

If you're into all the excruciating details you can find the "Masterplan" PDF here. https://www.usap.gov/news/documents/McMurdoMasterPlan_2.1.pdf