Participants in the Relay for Life walk laps around the Incirlik running track, May 9, 2009. The 2009 Relay for Life was the first relay available to members of the Incirlik community and hosted more than 300 participants from 20 teams, raising more ...
Jennifer Plante, 39th Operations Squadron, Capt. Angela Jenny and Capt. Elissa Ballas, 39th Medical Group, compete in the Women's 400-meter race during the Under the Lights Track Meet Wednesday, June 23, 2010, at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. Capt. Ball...
Orkun Dincer, a project engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Europe District's Turkey Resident Office, stands on the new Incirlik Air Base running track June 23, 2010, a product of his diligence in ensuring warranty work by the project's con...
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey - As Airmen hit the running track for the Under the Lights Track Meet earlier this year, the bright red seamless and cushioned rubber surface was a stark contrast to the dull, deformed and separating rubber track that was present just over a year earlier.
The $250,000 project not only delivered a new surface that decreases the impact on runners' legs, it also increases the track's resiliency to the elements, according to Orkun Dincer, the project engineer from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Europe District's Turkey Resident Office.
But according to Okan Nalbant, the Turkey Resident Office resident engineer, the real success lies in Dincer's diligence and persistence in executing warranty inspections that ended up saving the government roughly $100,000.
In 2002, the 39th Air Base Wing requested a replacement for the existing track, and in 2004, the contractor completed repairs to the track - roughly $250,000 in repairs overall.
However, it wasn't long after that Dincer noticed deformations beginning to appear on the track's surface. After another string of repairs by the contractor as part of warranty work, the track was completed in October 2009, but within a year more deformations began to appear during Dincer's warranty inspections.
"The cracks were really small to begin with, but it became clear that they would only get bigger," Dincer said. "If this were your home being inspected, you would nit-pick on the small things because you knew they would become major problems down the road translating into major expenses."
For more than eight months, Dincer conducted site visits and continually met the contractor. As a result, in May 2010 the entire track was resurfaced with new rubber - a cost of roughly $100,000 all absorbed by the contractor.
"Even though the contract was closed out five years ago, Orkun continued to pursue it," Nalbant said. "His persistence and hard work saved the government the $100,000 it would've cost to attain another contractor to resurface the track."
With the project now complete, the track is seeing more use after the repairs, according to Capt. Nathan Smith, a project engineer with the Turkey Resident Office. There have already been two track meets since the replacement, including the Under the Lights Track Meet.
The key to this success, Dincer said, is to have a good record system.
"We need to be diligent and persistent with warranty inspections. Keep your records up to date, take photos and keep them labeled properly so you can show the progress," he said.
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