Located on Georgia's eastern border, about a kilometer from Azerbaijan, its construction is a feat of engineering, design, and pacing. The building started in May 2002, and in just 10 short months, the construction team built five single family homes for officers and their families, a 64-person barracks, a dining hall, an operations-and-administration building, and a vehicle- maintenance facility.

And that's not all: the compound also includes a warehouse for supplies, a munitions storage building, utility buildings, a dog kennel, two water-storage buildings in case of fires, and two guard towers. It also has two helipads, an electrical substation, a wastewater treatment plant, a sports field, a soccer field, parade grounds, perimeter fences, paved roads and parking areas.

Photo Credit: Grant Sattler

The Red Bridge Border Station includes facilities for 64 troops and single-family houses for officers.

Is it as grand as it sounds? "Indeed it is," says CBP's program manager James Kelly, of the Office of International Affairs. "It was built to Western standards. It's amazing what the construction team accomplished in such a short time."

A multi-national team of laborers and suppliers, working under the direction of a Turkish construction company, built the compound, as the saying goes, from scratch. And it is a major improvement in living conditions for the border guards stationed there.

Before the facility was built, they lived in an area that's a virtual flood plain, in tents, cooking over an open fire, using latrines. "It would be like camping out here, only that's how they lived for the preceding three or four years," says Kelly.

Situated in central Asia's south Caucasus region, Georgia is a transit nation, the northern flank in a neighborhood that includes the Middle East. So even more important than creature comforts or protection from the elements - more important, even, than the employment or capital the project brings to the region - is the political control it will help restore. The new border facility will greatly fortify Georgia's ability to control its own border, coastline, and ports of entry.

George Levitsky, CBP's in-country advisor, says its location gives Georgia "enormous potential for the transit of weapons of mass destruction, dual-use technology, drugs, and other contraband, along with dangerous people who might support terrorism. That's why our border guard and coast guard are of such urgent importance."

Richard M. Miles, United States ambassador to Georgia, noted at the opening ceremony that the new facility would enable the Georgian Border Guard, Ministry of Defense, and Georgia's Customs Department to exercise greater control over the movement of people and goods. Miles emphasized the same feature that other officials did - because of its strategic location, the new facility will greatly reduce the opportunity for terrorists to move undetected throughout the region. He also noted that the construction project "is one of the largest, most successful that CBP's Office of International Affairs has under its jurisdiction."

Kelly says that the Red Bridge Border Station project "demonstrates what international cooperation can achieve in planning and constructing a facility ideally suited to border guards. Although the new facility is modeled after other border facilities, it was designed with the specific needs of the Georgians in mind."

Special thanks to Grant Sattler of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Europe District, who contributed to this article.