Balfour Beatty Tops Out Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego's New Mess Hall

September 2, 2025

SAN DIEGO, C.A. - Balfour Beatty celebrates the topping out of the $84.2 million Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) San Diego Recruit (P-315) Mess Hall in California. The milestone signifies significant progress towards the delivery of Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Southwest's newest building and largest mess hall in the Department of Defense (DoD) that supports MCRD San Diego's 'We Make Marines' mission for the next six decades.

To reach the milestone, Balfour Beatty and its trade partners installed all major underground utilities, completed a watershed basin and rerouted Guadalcanal Avenue. These operations included pouring 3,600 cubic yards of concrete, placing 373 tons of structural steel and drilling 318 deep pile foundations spanning a total of 24,000 lineal feet.

The facility incorporates 33,000 concrete masonry units and extensive utility systems, including 9,000 feet of underground plumbing piping and more than 25,400 feet of underground electrical conduit. In total, the project uses 421,000 feet of electrical wire-roughly equivalent to the distance from MCRD to Camp Pendleton and back. The facility is designed to house 840 lighting fixtures.

In addition to completing these operations, the project team reached 311 days and 70,000 hours without a lost-time incident as of July 2, 2025.

"I am very proud of our project team and industry partner's work to reach this monumental milestone at MCRD San Diego," said Emily Kay, Balfour Beatty president in California. "This achievement represents our unwavering commitment to supporting our nation's Marines and their critical training mission. The safety milestone the team has also achieved exemplifies our dedication to our company's Zero Harm safety culture and the operational excellence we bring to every project. We're honored to deliver what will be the largest mess hall in the Department of Defense."

The P-315 Mess Hall replacement project will be a 100,000-square-foot facility capable of serving up to 20,000 meals per day at peak demand. The building includes expansive mess deck dining areas, modern kitchen and scullery spaces, cold and dry storage, and administrative and employee support zones. The new facility is designed to support the operational needs of Marine recruits for the next 60 years.

Balfour Beatty will work with the coordinated effort between NAVFAC Southwest, MCRD San Diego Public Works, MCRD San Diego Food Services, MCAS Miramar and MCRD San Diego and the design team from Michael Baker International to deliver the MCRD P-315 Mess Hall.

Construction is ongoing for the mess hall and is scheduled for completion in Fall 2026.