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The following guidelines are for immediate use. The initial use should be limited to State funded County or City Contracts. If use on other type projects is desired, please discuss with the Construction Division Director. Please furnish a copy of the attached to the Cities and Counties in your jurisdiction which you feel would be interested and which presently have some capability in this area.
If you enter into any agreements for the construction engineering supervision, a copy should be sent to the Division Directors of Operations and Construction and to the Office Heads in the Construction Division.
Any city or county which is interested in being certified to perform the construction engineering supervision on projects in their jurisdiction shall submit a request, using the attached agreement form, to the D.O.T. Area Engineer. This request should contain statements concerning the number and qualifications of their engineering personnel. If only a portion of the engineering work (i.e., staking, etc.) is to be performed, this should be stated. It is agreed that the Department will be allowed to conduct evaluation checks and investigations as deemed necessary to determine the ability of the local government to carry out the engineering supervision function. The Area Engineer shall submit the request with his recommendation to the District Engineer who shall make the decision whether to accept or reject the request. If the request is approved the District Engineer shall execute an agreement with the county or city subject'to compliance with these procedures. This agreement will be in effect as long as the Department feels it is in the Department's and the local government's interest to do so. At any time the D.O.T. will reserve the right to void the agreement if the Engineering Supervision does not meet the standards established by the D.O.T.
The Contract Provisions including the Department Standard Specifications are to be used to cover all work in the contract. If there is any question concerning the intent of the Specification, the local engineering official shall consult the D.O.T. Area Engineer for interpretation.
Unless otherwise specified in the Construction Contract or approved by the D.O.T. Area Engineer, county or city engineering personnel shall follow the procedures outlined in the appropriate D.O.T. manuals. These manuals include, but are not limited to, the following:
Normally, most materials will be obtained from sources approved by the D.O.T. or will be pre-tested prior to shipment to the project. Acceptance sampling and testing may be handled by Office of Materials and Research Testing Management Units similar to that on projects on which D.O.T. personnel handle the Construction Engineering Supervision. The final Materials Certificate on these projects will be prepared by the Office of Materials and Research. Where the local government engineering office has testing facilities and personnel which have been determined by the D.O.T. Office of Materials and Research to be adequate, acceptance sampling and testing may be handled by local county and city engineering personnel, or it may be handled by a Consultant who has been qualified by the Department to perform Materials Testing. When a local government or qualified consultant has responsibility for acceptance testing, it will be necessary for them to prepare a draft Material Certificate which will be submitted to the D.O.T. Office of Materials and Research for review and approval. The D.O.T. Area Engineer shall advise the local government or qualified consultant of this requirement prior to commencement of construction. In either case, the Office of Materials and Research will conduct Independent Assurance testing to monitor the reliability of acceptance testing. Where it has been determined from Independent Assurance Testing that inferior work has been performed or inferior materials used, it will be necessary that this be resolved by corrective work or adjustment in payment before the final Materials Certificate is prepared.
Prior to making changes in the work involving specification changes or contract quantities, the local government engineer shall consult the D.O.T. Area Engineer who will be responsible for obtaining authority to make the change and for processing the necessary documents. If additional funds are needed to complete the project, a request shall be made and approved before the contract allotment is exceeded.
If the local government engineering personnel are to be responsible for documenting the work performed, then the documentation shall be performed in accordance with the procedures outlined by the D.O.T. Construction Manual. All records are to be maintained by the local government engineering unit and may be subject to periodic audit by the District or Area Engineer of the D.O.T. The local government project engineer shall furnish to the D.O.T. Area Engineer the quantities to be paid at the end of each pay period. At the conclusion of the project, all records to support the construction layout and to support payment for work done shall be turned over to the D.O.T. Area Engineer. The District Engineer will be responsible for conducting a complete final audit of these records before final payment is made.
The D.O.T. Area Engineer may choose to provide the Department's Computer Services for Construction layout purposes or for the final computation of the earthwork quantities.
At a frequency to be determined by the Area Engineer, intermediate inspections will be made to assure that the work is being performed in accordance with the contract, plans, specifications and engineering practices. These inspections will be made in company with the local government engineering representative. Prior to Final Acceptance a final inspection will be made by the D.O.T. District Engineer, or if so designated, the Area Engineer. The local government engineer shall notify the Area Engineer when the project is ready for the Final Inspection. The D.O.T. District Engineer will continue to write the Final Acceptance Letter once all the work has been completed to his satisfaction.
On projects where the D.O.T. has contracted with the county or city to do the construction work, the county or city will be responsible for any additional or corrective work at their expense which may become necessary due to engineering errors. Also, if the county or city has subcontracted the construction work and there are claims from the contractor for any reason, the county or city will resolve these at their expense.
On projects, other than county or city contracts, where the D.O.T. has entered into an agreement with the local government for the construction engineering supervision, the D.O.T. will resolve any contractor claims with the responsibility and expense being shared equally by the local government and D.O.T.
If it is deemed necessary, the D.O.T. District Engineer will conduct training sessions primarily for the benefit of local government engineering personnel. This training will be to acquaint the local government personnel with the procedures used by the D.O.T. in the areas of staking, inspection, testing, documentation, etc.
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