Testimonials
U.S. Army – Fort Knox Turret Article
Inspectors from B.I.G. Enterprises, Inc. finishing work ahead of time.
By SPC. Ian Boudreau
Turret Staff Writer
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Over the next two weeks, inspectors will finish a comprehensive evaluation of all Fort Knox facilities as part of an annual performance report conducted by the post Garrison.
This year however, contractors from B.I.G. Enterprises, Inc. will be conducting the approximately 1,100 inspections that make up part of the infrastructure element of the annual Installation Status Review, and Mark Rogers, a program analyst for the Plans, Analysis, and Integration Office of the Garrison staff.
“The infrastructure evaluation is one of the components of the Installation Status Review that tracks the performance of the Garrison against different measures”, Rogers said. “There’s a cost function to it, there’s an actual performance measure capture to it that tracks (things like) how many accidents we had on post… the other leg of it is the infrastructure, which is basically how well your buildings are performing their mission.”
The Installation Status Review has been administered in various ways in the past, said Bill Hickok, a realty specialist for the post’s Directorate of Public Works. Garrison relied on user evaluations for the first three years the study was conducted, and then moved to a “team evaluation” system for the past two years. This is the first year a private contractor has done the buildings inspections of post roads, utilities, bridges, and parking areas, Hickok said. The evaluation covers nearly every structure on post, from historic cantonment area buildings to remote training ranges. Inspectors are looking at building and usage codes, checking to see if walls are in good shape, air conditioners are working, and ifi the structure has enough space available for its assigned use.
Rogers said a random, representative sample of vacant housing facilities is being used to measure the status of post housing.
“We only wanted to use housing facilities that were vacant at this point in time,” he said. “We don’t want to be going into people’s homes to check on the walls.”
Some buildings will receive several inspections under multiple-use codes, he said. Since buildings such as barracks often serve more than one function, an inspection will be performed for each use, and each use code has its own specific quality checklist.
“They also do a comparison back to the existing work orders that are in the IFS system, which is the DPW work order tracking system,” Rogers said.
“What this does for the installation is it gives us an accurate picture of the assets on post,” he said. “It gives us the chance to see how we rate against the Army standards, and how we can better spend our money to meet the Army standards.”
The study, Rogers said, will give the Garrison a basis when requesting funds to bring certain facilities up to standard. It will also help personnel moving to Knox due to BRAC changes an accurate picture of available facilities.
Rogers said that based on B.I.G. Enterprises, Inc.’s progress so far, he expects the infrastructure study to be completed in the next two weeks – well ahead of schedule.
“I’ve actually been surprised at how quickly they’ve gotten this knocked out,” he said.
Once all the elements of the Installation Status Review are complete, Rogers explained, they will be incorporated into the Garrison’s “master plan” for Fort Knox development.
