Construction Manager Ted Upson traveled to Afghanistan in early March to begin setting up the Middle East District’s new Afghanistan Area Office. The new area office will manage construction of projects being transferred to MED as part of the continuing transition of USACE operations in Afghanistan. MED will manage most of the remaining projects in the Military Construction program and in the Afghanistan Infrastructure Program. Reporting to MED’s Afghanistan Area Office, under Construction Operations Division, are these resident offices: Bagram East, Bagram West, Bagram Other, and Kandahar. While in Afghanistan, Upson coordinated with the staffs at Afghanistan Engineer Districts North and South for assuming construction responsibility for projects in the MILCON and AIF programs. As part of that orientation, Upson toured, via helicopter, Kajaki Dam in the Helmand province and Dahla Dam in Kandahar province. USACE is carrying out projects to improve electrical distribution from Kajaki Dam through Helmand and Kandahar provinces, as well as making improvements to Dahla Dam for irrigation in the Arghandab Valley.