Recent Trends for DoD Construction Budgets

As the DoD construction budgets continue to decline, recent trends indicate many of these dollars will be dedicated to Facility Sustainment, Restoration and Modernization (SRM). The SRM program provides funds to keep the Government’s inventory of facilities in good working order. In addition, it provides resources to restore facilities whose age is excessive or have been damaged by fire, accident, or natural disasters and alternations of facilities to implement new or higher standards to accommodate new functions or mission.

Programming the available space to meet the new tenant’s needs is always important. However, a critical step in any renovation is pre-design data collection, or “as-builting”. How will today’s energy, security and ADA requirements affect the space available? What is hiding behind the walls that must be moved to accommodate a new function? Typically, the older the renovated building, the lower the availability of as-built drawings, and the even lower reliability of said drawings. It’s important for the design team to field verify all record drawings available which may require selective demolition. The more time dedicated to field investigations the lower the risk to the project schedule and budget.