London Ranger District Office Reconstruction

September 20 - The Daniel Boone National Forest completes the environmental assessment of the “London Ranger Station Reconstruction Project.” In the signed Decision Memo, London District Ranger Jason Nedlo documents his intent to demolish the existing facilities and redesign the site with a district office and support structures in a new configuration based upon the revised right-of-way and highway expansion plans.

March 28-31 - The London Ranger District Office is closed to allow staff to vacate the existing office compound and move to a shared workspace at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Laurel River Dam Resource Manager's Office.

April 5 - London Ranger District Office staff begin providing visitor services at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Laurel River Dam Resource Manager's Office.

July 20 - September 15 – The U.S. Forest Service issued a “Presolicitation Notice” to identify contractors interested in providing Design-Build services for the project.

Winter - The U.S. Forest Service identified the top three contactors from the submitted prospectus bids. These three contractors developed conceptual drawings and proposals for the London Ranger Office project.

Summer - The U.S. Forest Service reviewed the proposed designs and selected the project contractor. The contractor began to work with the Forest to refine the proposed design as part of the design-build process.

March 20 - Contractor begins site preparation by removing trees and existing vegetation.

Summer - Contractor begins demolition of existing Forest Service structures, service drives, curbs and parking. Two of the six total structures will be removed at this time. The other four existing structures will be demolished under a separate contract with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

Fall - Contractor begins construction of new permanent structures.

October - Projected completion date for all London Office construction.

Design-build is a project delivery method in which the owner contracts with a single entity for both design and construction. The design-build contract is based on the owner's statement of project requirements.

Under a design-build contract, designers and builders work hand-in-hand to produce construction drawings and analyze a logical construction sequence. This single-source collaboration allows for both the design and construction to be completed in stages rather than working from a complete design from the outset of the project.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council to encourage adoption of sustainable building and development practices through generally understood and accepted performance criteria. Well-designed sustainable buildings increase employee productivity, enhance occupant comfort and health, reduce the impacts of natural resource consumption, lower costs of facilities in the long term and minimize the strain on local infrastructure from growth and development.

All new Forest Service offices must achieve LEED Silver certification or higher. The compound, including all buildings and support infrastructure, will achieve LEED v4 BD+C Silver Certification.

The existing District Office building was built in 1968 before the current Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility standards were issued. The two-story building has tight hallways, an insufficient number of toilets, no accessible bathrooms and no elevator or ramps.

The new District Office building will eliminate these barriers to accessibility, improve the visitor experience at the office and improve the overall health and safety of visitors and employees.

Trees and other landscaping will be removed as necessary for the redevelopment of the site. While there are no known or proposed federally listed threatened or endangered species or designated critical habitat within the 7-acre project area, steps will still be taken to minimize potential impacts to local species and enhance the overall habitat diversity of the site.

• Tree clearing will only occur between August 1 and April 15, outside of nesting season.
• Any areas disturbed during construction will be seeded or sodded accordingly. Most landscaping will consist of shade and evergreen trees in lawn areas. All landscape species selected will be native or naturalized to the region and the Daniel Boone National Forest in particular.
• A new bioretention pond will help filter and treat runoff from the parking area and provide increased habitat. The biofiltration area is proposed to include a no mow zone of native grasses and sedges at the perimeter, along with native tree species that flourish in wet areas such as American Sycamore and Bald Cypress. In addition to native grasses, more ornamental species just as Joe Pye Weed, Coneflower and Black-eyed Susan are proposed to add color, variety and interest.

The new compound will provide Electrical Vehicle (EV) charging stations for eight light duty electrical vehicles in the wildland fire fleet parking zone . Infrastructure will be provided for the potential future addition of EV charging stations in the wildland fire fleet parking zone, employee parking area and all visitor parking spaces.