Partnership leads to road repairs, new opportunities at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston

SAN ANTONIO – Roads repairs are coming to Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.

The base is getting the repairs through a partnership between San Antonio and JBSA.

“Intergovernmental support agreement is extremely important. It’s one of the first of its kind for the Air Force in terms of a paving project,” said Brig. Gen. Laura Lenderman, commander of the 502nd Air Base Wing.

Directors with San Antonio's Transportation and Capital Improvements department said because the city already purchases asphalt and other street material at high volumes, the cost for the city is much lower than it would be for JBSA, so the department established an agreement to repair the streets on Fort Sam Houston at cost.

“(We’re) combining our efforts so we can save dollars and time in more creative ways, and this is one of those ways that we pursued, and the city jumped on board. It’s been a great partnership ever since,” Lenderman said.

Juan Ayala, director of the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs for the city, said that aside from the economic impact, the agreement would also go a long way if JBSA is ever involved in a base realignment and closure review.

“We want to be able to keep what we have here and send a very strong signal to the Department of Defense that this community of San Antonio is ready to take on more missions,” Ayala said.

That could mean similar projects on other installations.

“It's not limited to Fort Sam Houston. This was our top priority for this particular project. It can be applied to any installation around this region,” Lenderman said.


About the Author:

Stephanie Serna is a weekday anchor on Good Morning San Antonio and GMSA at 9 a.m. She joined the KSAT 12 News team in November 2009 as a general assignments reporter.