Web saves civil engineer directorate time, money Published April 19, 2006 By Dann Andrews 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFPN) -- Members of the 88th Air Base Wing civil engineer directorate have developed a way to save money and time by creating a system to submit project designs for technical and functional review through their Web site. This electronic process allows review agencies to make comments and post them on the Web page, allowing flexibility and enhancing the coordination process. The former process for reviewing project design documents required having CE members print eight to 10 copies of the design documents (which typically consisted of more than 300 pages, front and back). With the new online system, CE only prints two to three copies of the design book and maps for the engineers, organization and public review. "When CE posts the project design books and maps through the Web page, we save more than $80,000 in in-house printing and labor a year," said Don Smith, 88th ABW supervisory survey technician. The online project review system also saves travel time needed to distribute the documents. Instead of walking or driving to each organization to drop off the project design document for review, an e-mail is sent out that contains a link to the CE Web page. The reviewer has instant access to the documents for a certain amount of time. "Distributing design documents for review used to take days. Now it only takes minutes," said Jim Balsamo, 88th ABW civil engineer directorate chief of design.The online project review system also provides more time for the agencies to review the project design documents, CE officials said. A more thorough review will significantly reduce the number of costly change orders once the project is under construction. Change orders not only cost Wright-Patterson time and money, but can also impact the ability to accomplish critical base-wide missions. (Courtesy of Air Force Materiel Command News Service)