...told my guys we need to copy this," says Fox. "The Red Zone is absolutely theirs. It's mine now. I stole it and turned it over to the Air Force and that's a compliment to them." He adopted it Air Force-wide in the summer of 2002. The Navy adopted it for all of the Air Force's projects in the fall of 2002. The Corps now uses it on all military projects.

Burns and Firman have created or refined other groundbreaking processes as well. "They've developed a lot of innovative initiatives," says Sarabjit Singh, senior vice president for federal programs for URS Corp., Washington, D.C. Observers judge other major commands as more progressive in their use of design-build, overcoming environmental challenges and cost containment. However, "ACC is first in timelines," says Fox. Adds John D. Collins, AF branch head of�NAVFAC's Southern Division, Charleston, S.C., "In terms of overall program discipline, procedures and focus, they're the recognized leader."

Squadron Ops and Aircraft Maintenance Unit at Langley AFB had to accommodate new, larger FA-22 aircraft and yet honor the style of Langley's original architect, Albert Kahn. The $19-million building, completed in June 2004 under the Red Zone initiative, was on time and the 3.5% cost growth was from adding a high-security briefing room. (Photo courtesy of ACC)

As part of ACC's focus on discipline, the command's leaders take on "closer oversight of how we're doing on projects," says Jack Ham, project management division chief in the Corps' Transatlantic Program Center, which manages contingency construction overseas for ACC. "They want to be part of some of the decision-making processes that we maybe took for granted we could make ourselves. They're paying the bills so I don't have any problems with that," he adds.

Most of ACC's successful initiatives focus on formalizing common sense principles. Take planning, for example. Burns has developed an integrated planning concept, sharing ACC's plans with surrounding communities, taking a common sense approach. "The Army is sticking with the standard Dept. of Defense land use categories" where everything has a number, but Burns "wants to start using common language in planning" says Ken Kost, director of federal planning for PBS&J, Alexandria, Va. "The [existing] standards from ACC's perspective are old and inappropriate and are being changed at Gen. Burns' level," adds Scott Allen, environmental practice director of Michael Baker Corp. in the Glen Burnie, Md., office. And, ACC's Future First Planning (F2P) program steps up cleanup of environmentally problematic sites. "Now instead of having to do a design and then a cleanup and construct under three separate contracts, they can do it as one," which speeds up the process and allows previously off-limits sites to be utilized constructively, explains Wayne McDermott, vice president of federal programs for Earth Tech Corp. in the Newport News, Va., office.

For example, a running track and parking facility were built on a landfill site that was in need of environmental cleanup across the street from the new fitness center at Langley. Originally "the installation wasn't looking at how they could use the site to augment the fitness facility," says Michael Baker Corp.'s Allen, who calls the project "the poster child project that originally initiated Gen. Burns' thinking." Adds Connie Carmody, Air Force client service manager for CH2M Hill Global Environmental Services Group, Denver, "The achievement there is that we used both restoration money and regular old construction money for two different kinds of work" in one contract.

"F2P is very visionary and probably long overdue. ACC stepped up to the plate and said that appropriate land use should drive what happens on the property," says Scott Streifert, Air Force program manager for AMEC in the San Antonio, Texas, office. F2P "has unbelievable potential," says Parker. "We're still beta testing it….Call us in 12 to 18 months."

On every project, ACC uses a Customer Concept Document (CCD) that it developed to nail down user requirements up front to avoid costly changes during construction. One disaster occurred when Ret. Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers was chief of engineers of the Corps. A hospital in Alaska ended up "way over budget and way over time," he says. "When we peeled the onion back, there were over 600 user-directed changes and some of them were not minor," he recalls. "When [a base commander] would leave and a new person came in, the requirements changed," admits Burns. Now the CCD is changing that.

The $9-million Weapon Systems Trainer at Ellsworth AFB, So. Dakota, was a perfect candidate for ACC's Customer Concept Document to contain costs. The challenge was to maintain functionality while blending the architecture with the Black Hills. At the halfway point, it is under budget and ahead of schedule, says Burns. (Drawing courtesy of ACC)

"We get the wing commander to buy in to the project," says Firman. "It minimizes changes. Also we put in no extra moneys that a user could justify a change with," he adds. Two fiscal year 2005 projects are off to a good start. The B1-B weapons system trainer and base operations facilities at Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota each have construction durations reduced by 150 to 180 days over what ACC previously allowed. "They've looked at the processes and have established metrics and standard processes that, number one, make a lot of sense, and number two, get results," says Mark Kraynak, NAVFAC's headquarters client liaison for the Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Burns and Firman work collaboratively with their agents, designers and contractors. "Our approach is to set standards that are a challenge and partner with the Army, the Corps, NAVFAC and the private sector to meet them," says Burns. That wasn't always so. A few years ago, the...