Project designs are accomplished through several processes.  The four districts which report to the Southwestern Division maintain a staff of engineers and architects who accomplish designs for projects.  If in-house staffing is not available to accomplish the design, the districts will hire a private firm to prepare the contract documents. Finally, the district may issue the scope of work for the project under a Design-Build solicitation.

 

Fort Worth:

Design Center of Standardization          

http://www.swf.usace.army.mil/pubdata/EC/civildesign/index.asp

http://www.swf.usace.army.mil/pubdata/ec/cos/

Support for others (ECSO)     

http://ecso.swf.usace.army.mil/

Energy         

http://www.swf.usace.army.mil/energy/

 

Galveston:

http://www.swg.usace.army.mil/BusinessWithUs/EngineeringConstructionDivision.aspx

 

Little Rock:

http://www.swl.usace.army.mil/e&c/index.html

 

Tulsa:

Engineering and Construction Services       

http://www.swt.usace.army.mil/~ORGAN/services.cfm

Military Construction             

http://www.swt.usace.army.mil/~ORGAN/military.htm

The Southwestern Division provides oversight and guidance to employees who are assigned to Acquisition Technology and Logistics (AT&L) positions. They assure that employees accomplish all training as required by the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA)

*Defense Acquisition University (www.dau.mil)

The Southwestern Division provides guidance and oversight of Construction Management activities in our four district offices.  The field offices assigned to each of these districts manage the construction contracts to ensure that the contractor provides the project as detailed in the contract documents and that the work is validated utilizing a three phase inspection process.

Provide program guidance to construction activities for Fort Worth District, Galveston District, Little Rock District and Tulsa District.  Conduct annual Design and Construction Evaluations for each District.  Promote DAWIA Certification to ensure a pool of candidates who are capable of  obtaining and executing Administrative Contracting Officer (ACO) warrants.

New oversight measures are being implemented for Mega Projects.  We currently have two within SWD: The Fort Hood Hospital and the Fort Bliss Hospital.

Cost & Value Engineering Functions: Assists Districts to ensure engineering projects are completed at the lowest life cycle cost consistent with required performance, reliability, quality, safety, and cost effectiveness through improvements in engineering design and methods.  Assist Districts in preparation of Government estimates for bid openings, negotiation of modifications and at designated points during design to keep project within the authorized funding.  Assure that information pertaining to each project is populated in the Historical Analysis Generator (HAG) database.

Links to additional content

• http://www.usace.army.mil/ValueEngineering.aspx
• ER 11-1-321 Value Engineering Regulation
• MB Circular No. A-131 (requires Federal departments and agencies to use value engineering as a management tool to reduce program and acquisition costs)

Cost Engineering Functions: Prepare the Government estimates for bid openings, negotiation of modifications, and at designated points during design to keep project within the authorized funding.  Assure that information pertaining to each project is populated in the Historical Analysis Generator (HAG) database.

Mission: Assuring the successful accomplishment of cost engineering objective within the SWD and for each district, including:

• SWD point of contact in communication with HQUSACE cost engineering
• Manage and support the regional cost engineering, ensuring districts cost engineering in compliance with requirements
• Provide technical assistance and support to districts and SWD elements on cost engineering issues

Value Engineering: Achieve the essential functions at the lowest life cycle cost consistent with the required performance, reliability, quality and safety (Cost Effectiveness) . ER 11-1-321 Value Engineering Regulation and OMB Circular No. A-131 provide governing guidance.

a.      Definition:  Value Engineering is an analysis of the functions of a program, project, system, product, item of equipment, building, facility, service or supply performed by qualified contractor personnel, directed at improving performance, reliability, quality, safety, and life cycle costs.

b.      Mission: Manage and support the regional VE program, ensuring districts VEO implement HQ/SWD policy, guidance and in compliance with VE requirements and meet performance rating metrics quarterly and annually. The rating metrics are Program Coverage (>$2Mil) and Cost Avoidance (1.5% of Total Obligation Authorized – TOA).

c.      Challenges/Issues: VE program has challenges and issues across USACE and we (VE CoP) have been working to address and resolve the issues. SWD districts value engineer officers (VEO) have been working diligently overcome the challenges and issues at districts.

 Coordinate efforts on projects to meet Command emphasis on Sustainability at all levels.  Pursue energy conservation targets. Coordinate efforts on projects to meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Criteria.  To achieve LEED Silver ratings for our military facilities, we need to work closely with the installation to assure that we can receive these points on a project.  It is necessary to have the contractor maintain LEED documentation throughout the life of the project to assure that the proper validation / certification can be processed at the completion of the work.  Within the CW program, develop methods to comply with Executive Order 13514 issued October 2009 which repeats requirements of previous Mandates AND beginning 2020 requires all new construction and major renovation to meet net zero energy usage.

 

SWD Civil Works Energy Sustainability Program:

 

•       Regional Energy Sustainability: Why it matters! 

Energy Analysis and conservation measures at the Jadwin building (Galveston District HQ in Galveston Texas) will result in:

• Energy savings of approximately 640, 000 kilowatt hours
• Cost savings nearly $65,000
• Approximate energy reductions of 17.58%

Recommended energy measures completed by October 2013 currently funded include:

• Reduce vending machine electrical consumption
• Lighting controls for restrooms, locker rooms and fitness center

• Unfunded parking lot lighting replacement

Potential project:

Solar ponds at Red River Chloride Control Project to generate total of 50 megawatts.

SWD Military Energy Sustainability Program:

SWD emphasized communication and input from installation through well established      military planning and project management Business lines.   SWD is designating SWF the regional lead district for sustainable energy, water and waste.  SWD and SWF will be documenting installation input and request for help and formulating a next step for    customer support.

SWD Energy Cx (Center of Expertise at SWF):

Southwestern Division established a SWD Energy Cx (Center) of Expertise for Energy, Sustainable Design and Life Cycle Cost Analysis under the leadership of the SWF District Commander. This team will lead the Energy, Water and Waste, sustainability engagements and solutions within SWD region.The SWD Energy Cx shows across the board energy capabilities within SWF to provide installation support efforts to include programming, design, and contracting actions to execute energy projects to             meet federal mandated energy requirements with support of SWG, SWL and SWT. 

Designated the Regional Sustainability/Energy CX for SRM (Army Sustainment Renovation and Moderization) Program

Designated the USACE Waste to Energy (WtE) Center of Expertise (CX)

Geospatial (BIM/CADD/GIS/Survey) Functions: Coordinate the management and implementation of GIS standards throughout our technical products.  This effort extends across multiple organizations at the District Offices.  Work with HQ and our Districts on CADD / BIM standards and implementation, with the end objective being to assist our customers to more effectively operate and maintain their facilities.   Our Districts are becoming competent in dual platforms: Bentley  Microstation and Autodesk AutoCAD.  SWD is utilizing GIS for its analytical and data integration capabilities, and for output including and Flood Mapping display.

Links            

Fort Worth District Planning

Little Rock District Planning

Building Information Modeling

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the latest technology to offer significant improvement in the speed, cost, and quality of facility planning, design and construction, and operations and maintenance. One eloquent description of BIM is an Intelligent Simulation of Design Intent. In more practical terms, the potential of BIM stems from its value as an interchange mechanism between the tools used to perform the various functions of the AEC industry (standards) and the ability of computational tools to manipulate the model directly, with or without human intervention (computable). In a typical BIM-enabled process, the data model serves as the principal means for communication between activities and professionals.

Computer Aided Design and Drafting, also CAD

Computer-aided design (CAD), also known as computer-aided design and drafting (CADD is the use of computer systems to assist in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. Computer-aided drafting describes the process of creating a technical drawing with the use of computer software CAD software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve communications through documentation, and to create a database for manufacturing.CAD output is often in the form of electronic files for print or machining operations. CAD software uses either vector based graphics to depict the objects of traditional drafting, or may also produce raster graphics showing the overall appearance of designed objects.

Major Vendors:

• Autodesk: http://usa.autodesk.com/
• Bentley: http://www.bentley.com/en-US/

USACE Enterprise License Agreement (ELA)           

http://www.usace-isc.org/presentation/Geospatial/USACE%20ESRI%20Enterprise%20License%20Agreement_M.Martin.pdf

http://www.usace-isc.org/presentation/BIM%20CAD/USACE%20Autodesk%20Enterprise%20License%20Agreement_Drew_Anderson.pdf

http://www.usace-isc.org/presentation/BIM%20CAD/WoodsV_USACE-BIM-PastPresentFuture_InfrastructureConference.pdf

GIS Geographic Information System (GIS)

GIS is a system of hardware and software used for storage, retrieval, mapping, and analysis of geographic data.  Practitioners also regard the total GIS as including the operating personnel and the data that go into the system.  Spatial features are stored in a coordinate system (latitude/longitude, state plane, UTM, etc.), which references a particular place on the earth.  Descriptive attributes in tabular form are associated with spatial features.  Spatial data and associated attributes in the same coordinate system can then be layered together for mapping and analysis.    GIS can be used for scientific investigations, resource management, and development planning.

GIS differs from CAD and other graphical computer applications in that all spatial data is geographically referenced to a map projection in an earth coordinate system.  For the most part, spatial data can be "re-projected" from one coordinate system into another, thus data from various sources can be brought together into a common database and integrated using GIS software.  Boundaries of spatial features should "register" or align properly when re-projected into the same coordinate system.   Another property of a GIS database is that it has "topology," which defines the spatial relationships between features.  The fundamental components of spatial data in a GIS are points, lines (arcs), and polygons.  When topological relationships exist, you can perform analyses, such as modeling the flow through connecting lines in a network, combining adjacent polygons that have similar characteristics, and overlaying geographic features.

Major Vendor

http://www.esri.com/

Survey

Little Rock District Engineering and Construction