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New visitor’s, registration center planned for Tinker

  • Published
  • By Brandice J. Armstrong
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla., --  Plans for a new force protection strategy are under way.

The plans, though still in preliminary stages, will designate Tinker Gate, or Gate No. 1 at S. Air Depot Boulevard and Interstate 40, as the new 24-hour entrance. Complete with a new registration and visitors center, construction for the project will likely start in September or October, and be finished by late 2010.

"It will give visitors a good first impression of Tinker Air Force Base, when they're first getting oriented with it," said Randon Rieger, Tinker Support Services Joint Venture engineering team lead with the 72nd Air Base Wing Civil Engineering Group.

Set back from the interstate and tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the Air Depot Boulevard and Southeast 29th Street intersection is Tinker Gate. Renovated approximately three years ago, Tinker Gate offers drivers a sleek and modernized entrance without causing a back-up on city streets, should there be a traffic delay. 

Situated just north of a popular base intersection and west of the base exchange and commissary, the Tinker Gate offers drivers easy access to destinations, without giving away locales of administration offices.

When construction at Tinker Gate is finished, the refurbished entrance will house a new canopy, a 3,700 square-foot visitors and registration center, to replace the 72nd Security Forces Squadron Pass and Registration Office outside of Eaker Gate, and traffic-calming devices. The improved gate will also have a search area, giving security officers the ability to check vehicles before they enter the installation.

"[Right now], it's a security challenge at Eaker [Gate]," said Master Sgt. Pete Way, 72nd SFS Installation Security superintendent. "When you come off the interstate, you're immediately on the gate. In order to facilitate getting people on base, to keep up with the security measures and checking identifications, without letting traffic get backed up on the interstate, we still manage to get the job done although Eaker Gate is not the greatest design for that." 

Tinker Gate renovations are expected to cost approximately $5.4 million and will be funded with congressionally-approved military construction funding.