Just wouldn’t be without CE

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Kirby Turbak
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

At Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, it seems like something is always under construction; well, it is, because the 39th Civil Engineer Squadron is constantly working to maintain and improve the installation. The process to start a construction project does not happen overnight though.

 “Anyone on base can submit a work order request, and then that work request goes to a work request review board,” said U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Timothy Moffett, 39th CES installation manager flight commander.

More routine tasks are handled by CE’s 16 engineers, but projects requiring additional manning and resources are contracted out.

While CE chooses the order of priority for in-house tasks, the contracted projects are prioritized from one to 100 by squadron and base leadership.

“We go to our facility board and project prioritization for the base to determine what our focus will be on. We meet once a quarter for the whole wing,” explained Moffett. “The squadron commanders prioritize their projects and then we rack-and-stack them based off the base’s priorities.”

After receiving an estimated cost and approval for a project, it is then designed before ultimately funded.

The 39th Comptroller Squadron and CES work together seamlessly to ensure they can create and fund projects.

By working together and honing this process, their relationship has led to projects being funded quicker than the average base.

 “Our relationship with finance is why were able to be funded so much, because the Air Force can see we need this money and we’re able to get the work done and move onto the next task,” said U.S. Air Force 2nd Lt. Alexander Holba, 39th CES construction management chief.

CE and finance teamwork is just one part of the construction process, but the Wing’s Contracting Squadron is also a critical component in getting the project funded and completed.

 “Once the project has funding it goes to contracting, who puts it on the market for 30 days and we need to get at least three offers from contractors whose company is willing to do the jobs,” said Moffett. “Then we review all the offers to make sure they are technically acceptable, then the lowest bid wins the contract.”

Once a company has been awarded a base project, members of the 39th CES regularly inspect construction to make sure the company is on schedule, taking proper safety procedures and following the design correctly.

Once a project is complete, the 39th CES doesn’t have much time to catch their breath.

“We have projects ready to go so when one gets done we’re onto the next,” said Holba. “With the help of finance and contracting we’re able to do one project after another with little to no wait time to start.”