Paperless Engineering Services During Construction – Sustainable and Efficient

Two and a half years after design began, Okaloosa County's new Arbennie Pritchett Water Reclamation Facility has entered the performance testing phase with final completion scheduled for September 2009. Construction of the 10-million-gallon-per-day (mgd) advanced wastewater treatment plant has occurred on a fast-track schedule utilizing a design-build approach. A “Paperless Engineering Services During Construction” system was developed for use on the Arbennie Pritchett project. With nearly all of the design team located remotely from the site, and numerous parties involved in the construction of the new plant, a central document management system was selected for safekeeping and organization of the hundreds of documents associated with construction. Over the past two years, the paperless approach has improved collaboration between the design-build team, assisted with coordination efforts, and led to faster turnaround times for resolving construction-related issues. While there is room for improvement, the paperless approach has been a great success.