Condition Assessment Group Homepage

Facility Managers throughout industry and the government are seeking ways to preserve their capital assets, restore their infrastructure and continue to operate effectively and efficiently with their current facilities, and needing to accomplish this with decreasing budgets. They must determine first what assets they have and what current condition they are in. The Condition Assessment Survey (CAS) is a program that accomplishes this.

The Department of Energy's (DOE) CAS program is based on the Uniformat II system developed by the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) assemblies that R.S. Means employs in its square foot cost analysis. In compliance with DOE Order 430.1B real Property Asset Management order the DOE CAS program involves visual and non-invasive inspections of building and infrastruture systems and components.

The DOE CAS program is a systemized, standard approach to facility and asset evaluations. It includes the following:

• A physical assessment of assets based on industry standards.
• A web based database that estimates repair/replacement costs based on a national cost estimating system (RS Means).
• Producing deferred maintenance costs based on using reliable, consistent field data to develop supportable funding requests.
• Asset component systems developed by the Construction Specification Institute (CSI).

With CAS, a facilities manager can use planning tools such as deficiency-based repair reports, a method to estimate replacement costs, design tables to project remaining life, and plan for future use. CAS allows the manager to have solid, verifiable analytical information on the specific deficiencies of a system or component, the extent and coverage of the deficiencies, and the urgency to repair these deficiencies. This data can be used to allocate capital repair and replacement funds to the most needed and important facility deficiencies. The Department of Energy's (DOE) CAS program is based on the Uniformat II system developed by the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) assemblies that R.S. Means employs in its square foot cost analysis. With this linkage the DOE CAS program has a broadly based industry-wide standard.

The Work Breakdown Structure comprises the following systems:

DOE's CAS program involves visual and non-invasive inspections of building and infrastructure systems and components. The inspections are based on the systems above. CAS deficiency and inspection manuals were developed corresponding to these systems and licensed by DOE's Energy Science and Technology Software Center.

The program has a web based information database that gathers deficiency information and estimates repair or replacement costs and reports on the inspection results. The Condition Assessment Information System (CAIS) permits cost adjustments for site demolition, labor, materials, hazardous conditions, and security considerations for users to apply. It has standardized and customized reports to meet site needs.

CAS requires experienced engineers or technicians familiar with facility and infrastructure inspection procedures. A training program has been developed to assist the inspectors on how to use the CAS protocols, and the loading and reporting functions in CAIS.

The Department of Energy funds support contractor services to maintain the program, provide hotline services, software training, and site recommended enhancement development.

In summary, the CAS program has been designed to support the vital process of creating a facility condition baseline that is founded on recognized, fully defined industry based inspection and deficiency standards. CAS is an essential tool in determining realistic requirements needed to obtain budgetary funding. It provides a picture across a site that can be used to direct limited resources to the most critical facilities and systems. The inspection and cost data are consistent and reliable and are the basis for developing supportable funding requests.