Public Works Ministry, USAID announce completion of Engineering Design Review System for school buildings

AMMAN — Minister of Public Works and Housing Yahya Kisbi on Thursday announced that the ministry has completed the development of a system to review school building engineering designs in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The system enables the support of information management systems that link project-cycle variables and decision-making with accurate and real-time information, according to a USAID statement.

During the launch ceremony, Kisbi stated that the School Engineering Design Review System is a “pioneering project” to modernise the operations management of the School Buildings Studies Directorate.

He stressed the need to use the Engineering Design Review System for each stage of designing school buildings as an essential step for digital transformation and to facilitate the management and follow-up of construction projects. 

USAID Deputy Mission Director Margaret Spears said: "USAID highly values its strong partnership with the Ministry of Public Works and Housing. Together, we have been able to achieve important milestones in improving the learning environments for hundreds of thousands of students throughout Jordan, and the Enhancing School Management and Planning Activity represents another area of collaboration that will improve school construction across the country." 

Kisbi noted the system will increase coordination between partners, reduce correspondence time and facilitate work requirements, in addition to reducing the percentage of errors and increasing the efficiency of implementing engineering projects from the design stage to the implementation stage. 

The Ministry’s Director of Buildings Administration and Director of the Buildings Studies Directorate, in their capacity as essential members of the team that designed the module in the Ministry, provided a presentation to clarify the system, the extent of its need, and the extent of the development provided by the system to engineering work. 

The meeting highlighted the module’s features, including its electronic approval process for engineering designs, the process of electronic archiving of engineering plans, and support to designer’s efficiency and coordination. 

The system allows ministerial engineers to edit drawings, communicate directly with architectural and engineering firms, track progress, and automatically identify delays and bottlenecks that will guide continuous improvement to engineering processes throughout the department, according to the statement.