Contractor Orders Lightweight Panels For Marine Base Camp Shelter

Continuing to gain traction within the U.S. Department of Defense, Ecolite Concrete USA will provide prefabricated walls for a temporary lodging facility

Continuing to gain traction within the U.S. Department of Defense, Ecolite Concrete USA will provide prefabricated walls for a temporary lodging facility (TLF) at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. The lightweight concrete and steel-stud wall panel system was selected by Carlsbad, Calif.-based RQ Construction, a prominent Department of Defense contractor awarded the design-build project by the U.S. Navy.

Affirms RQ Construction CEO George Rogers, The Temp Lodge Facility was the perfect opportunity to apply the Ecolite StudCast wall system. Our customer needed a building that cost less, so that they could afford first-class furniture and fixtures Û and, they needed it fast. Ecolite gave us both and is helping design it to a LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] Silver level. A lodge like this would normally take 12-14 months to build, and we plan to do it in eight months. By RQ Construction estimates, that timetable offers a 35 percent reduction in total build time as compared to traditional construction methods.

The flagship hotel will use 600-plus Ecolite wall panels, totaling more than 64,000 square feet. Because Ecolite wall panels Û cellular concrete into which cold-formed steel stud framing is partially embedded, with expanded metal lath aiding the bond Û are engineered to the designer’s specification and fabricated in a controlled environment, nearly all of the TLF walls have been completed prior to the start of installation.

Designed for replication on military bases across the U.S., the Camp Pendleton TLF will provide housing and accommodations to families and friends of military personnel. The structure will incorporate engineering to optimize collapse prevention and blast resistance. Despite its exceptional strength and safety features, Ecolite asserts, the hotel will look and feel much like newer commercial hotels.


Ecolite’s pre-engineered, prefabricated wall system incorporates cellular concrete cast into panelized cold-formed steel stud framing to produce a high-performance, ready-to-erect wall.

Cellular concrete is 50 percent air by volume. Billions of tiny air bubbles give the wall high fire resistance, excellent acoustic insulation, and three times the thermal resistance of concrete block, Ecolite developers affirm.