May/June 2021 - 103

Advancing Federal Building
Guides and Standards
G U E S T
EDI TORIAL
Even the most straightforward project
can become highly complex when it
involves a global footprint of partner
offices, suppliers and contractual
venues. The Naval Facilities Engineering
Systems Command (NAVFAC),
which is one of two primary Department
of Defense (DoD) construction
agents, routinely completes projects in
such international work environments.
In addition, NAVFAC provides building
specification guidance that deep
foundation and other professionals can
turn to as a resource and influence the
development of.
To address project complexities
such as global team environments,
NAVFAC participates in the Defense
Standardization Program. This program
unifies and standardizes technical
and quality requirements for
military buildings - regardless of a
project's location or which federal
agency is overseeing the work.
Design Guidance Pluses
In the late 1990s, as part of the
Standardization Program, the DoD
col laborated wi th the Nat ional
Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) on
developing the Whole Building Design
Guide (WBDG). The effort initially
focused on standardizing performance
requirements across the entire DoD in
Whole Building Design Guide
https://www.wbdg.org
order to establish uniform baseline
requirements. This enabled the DoD to
maximize the return on investment by
reducing design costs, both through
limiting the need for rework and
reducing construction litigation.
Additional savings were realized by
utilizing proven, mature technologies to
gain material and labor efficiencies.
Since the '90s, the WBDG focus has
expanded to include all quality related
facets of the building industry. And the
guide has been adopted by numerous
federal agencies, such as the Department
of State, Department of Veterans
Affairs, NASA, and U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (USACE).
Design Guide Offerings
Unified Facilities Criteria
https://www.wbdg.org/ffc/dod/unifiedfacilities-criteria-ufc
Unified
Facilities Guide Specifications
https://www.wbdg.org/ffc/dod/unifiedfacilities-guide-specifications-ufgs
Accessing
federal WBDG resources
The WBDG houses a wide range of
building-related guidance and criteria
that apply from cradle to grave of a
facility's life cycle. This range of
offerings is why the WBDG website
receives over 500,000 queries monthly,
primarily from specifiers and designers
seeking design guidance and federal
criteria. Documents published to the
WBDG are a compendium of the latest
knowledge related to building elements
such as operational and mission
requirements, acquisition regulations,
existing agency and industry standards,
and legal policy, with industry feedback
incorporated from
architects, engineers
and cont
r ac to r s . As a
result, the WBDG
has quickly become
a trusted
source for free,
reliable information
that has been
thoroughly vetted
during development.
JOE
WOLIVER, P.E., CHIEF
GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEER,
AND JEFFREY SINGER, P.E.,
SENIOR GEOTECHNICAL
ENGINEER, NAVFAC ATLANTIC
The two primary document types
that are available through the WBDG
are Unified Facilities Guide Specifications
(UFGS) and Unified Facilities
Criteria (UFC). While these documents
rely on the safety and performance
requirements of established consensus
codes to the greatest extent practical,
they also serve as a bridge by establishing
additional policy, functional
and quality requirements.
UFGS are specifications the DoD
uses to convey construction and
material performance requirements for
building all military facilities. These
specifications are in CSI MasterFormat
and are typically edited using NASA's
SpecsIntact software. The documents
establish a set quality standard and are
typically updated every 3 to 4 years to
ensure their effectiveness and relevance
to the current state of practice.
While UFGS documents provide
specific performance requirements,
UFC documents provide planning,
design, construction and sustainment
criteria for military facilities. To be most
effective, these criteria documents are
developed with active industry participation
and feedback. Anyone can
comment on a particular document on
the WBDG using the electronic Criteria
Change Request (CCR) process, which
go directly to the agency responsible. In
addition, although published criteria
documents generally rely on proven,
DEEP FOUNDATIONS * MAY/JUNE 2021 * 103
https://www.wbdg.org/ https://www.wbdg.org https://www.wbdg.org/ffc/dod/unified-facilities-criteria-ufc https://www.wbdg.org/ffc/dod/unified-facilities-criteria-ufc https://www.wbdg.org/ffc/dod/unified-facilities-criteria-ufc https://www.wbdg.org/ffc/dod/unified-facilities-guide-specifications-ufgs
May/June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May/June 2021
