Brian Camden Radio Interview Transcribed & On You Tube
"Brian: Well, we're mainly architectural engineers. We do all types of constructions, hardened shelters, as a sister company of Powell Management, which is an East Coast construction program management firm. We first started into the bunker construction, back in 1991, in response to a specific request from a client who wanted a shelter built in upstate New York. At the time, we couldn’t find anyone to do it so we kind of fell into it. We were already in / we build large capital and public projects; everything from schools to wastewater treatment plants. So we were fairly well-versed already in reinforced concrete and large earthwork operations in structural steel. We started, like I said, right after the first Gulf War in 1991. We were into all kinds of things - everything from real estate development to shopping centres. Six, seven years ago, it really has taken over the firm. We are licensed importers of war materials - we can bring in all the chemical, biological, radiological filters, and we have a license from the US State Department that allows us to work on bunkers overseas. We have about 12 affiliates, coast to coast, here in America. We have a large European operation, operation in Great Britain and an office in Bahrain. We've opened offices in Australia and New Zealand.
A hardened structure, a reinforced underground concrete bunker, it's going to run anywhere from US$200-$600 a square foot, depending on the protection program and the level of electromagnetic pulse protection, where it's located - if it’s up in a mountain, the geotechnical conditions we'll encounter and the owner's privacy and secrecy requirements. About half of our business is reinforced structures, fortified homes for people who are mainly preparing for economic collapse - this is what the protection programs are all about. And I'd say, probably 55% of our work, these are houses like you see in the interactive video.
The homes look like a regular house. They're ballistic rated, usually to a UL rating of 5, which is one round of an AK-47. They are fire resistant; they have an underground bunker component. Most of the time, they are secondary residence for a client. The good thing is that in most foreign countries, they all want American engineering. And we design everything to DoD Department Of Defence specs but generally speaking we always have to team up with a local general contractor, either a Jordanian contractor, Saudi or Turkish -- because their labor costs are so much lower. Certain clients have a protection program that envisions a tidal wave going overhead. And under that threat event scenario, what we calculate is the finish grade elevation of the area outside, be it a mountain or plain or where you are. And if it's a 1000-foot tidal wave, you have to calculate how many hours it's going to take for the water to recede. Whether it’s a 100 hours, 500 hours or whatever the time may be and you have to install CO scrubbers and oxygen machines.
Interviewer: Interesting."
