Ingenuity-Fall-2017

4 Pond | www.pondco.com A B C PROJECT DEMARCATION OVERALL PLAN SCALE: 1" = 50' 0 25' 50' 100' 150' PROJECT DEMARCATION OVERALL PLAN SCALE: 1" = 50' 0 25' 50' 100' 150' PL ERSLOUISVILLE DISTRICT TTSBURGH C17 The Need for Speed! Multiple Funding Sources and Short Schedules Complicate New Department of Defense Projects H undreds of Department of Defense (DoD) projects across the United States have been backlogged for the last five to eight years. Budgeting constraints, retiring staff, and contracting changes have slowed the release of these projects to a trickle, until just recently. The overwhelming need to update and maintain military base facilities and support mission changes has pushed the U.S. Government to begin letting projects. However, the new funding has a short shelf-life. For example, many projects that would normally require up to five years are given only two years to spend the designated budget. This is the case for the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Louisville District’s Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station. The Louisville District received the green light to let dozens of projects that will enable the base to support its mission change from housing C130 aircrafts to housing C17 aircrafts. The approximately $130 million allotted for this undertaking is budgeted to be spent within two years, with the base being fully mission ready in April 2019. In the past, USACE Districts and bases have had time to build up to major renovations or new construction projects such as the mission change at Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station. These projects have also, generally, had only one funding source. Now, in the push to get all the renovations and mission changes addressed, funding is coming from multiple streams. Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station’s $130 million comes from multiple sources, including Sustainment Restoration Maintenance (SRM) funds, which support renovation and maintenance work, and Military Construction (MILCON) funds, which pay for new construction. These multiple funding sources, coupled with the compressed schedules, set forth major contracting and project management challenges for the military bases and USACE Districts. With limited personnel, the Louisville District had to address the issue of how to simultaneously manage all the separate projects that must be completed in two years without slowing down the design and construction process or creating an administrative deluge for themselves. One of the ways the Louisville District approached these issues was to enlist the help of both base personnel, to manage small projects, and the Baltimore District, which has offices close to the base. The Baltimore District can serve as the Louisville District’s eyes and ears on site during design and construction, therefore negating the need for Louisville District personnel to travel extensively. For the larger projects at the Pittsburgh base, the Louisville District developed a streamlined contracting approach. Projects that overlap or are adjacent were grouped together under one contract, even if the funding came from various sources. This enabled USACE and base project managers to award and manage fewer contracts and receive only one set of specifications and drawings per contract rather than per project. While this efficient process reduces the administrative tasks for the USACE project managers, it places significant responsibilities on the designers’ shoulders. Some design and engineering teams have been awarded contracts that contain several projects, many of which need to be conducted concurrently. These concurrent, adjacent projects are often funded by several types of money, and it is the designers’ responsibility to ensure that the work they do is compliant with the type of funding. For example, a pavement project funded with SRM money can include upgrades or fixes to pavement that has already been lain, but not the creation of new paved Many projects that would normally require up to five years are given only two years to spend the designated budget. Excerpt from article published in The Military Engineer magazine

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