Engineer of Record

[BNGeo]

A general question on engineer’s responsibility. For a project where a geotechnical engineer performs borings and then those borings are provided to another entity (water tank designer-builder), who is then the geotechnical engineer of record? If the tank designer designs the foundations and are providing full design services, is it right that the tank designer is also the geotechnical engineer?

 

[DaveAtkins]

I have never heard anyone use the phrase "Geotechnical Engineer of Record." The geotech is normally a subconsultant. The designer is the Engineer of Record.

DaveAtkins

 

[dik]

...and most geotech reports have a fairly well written 'third party' exclusion. In addition, the information is only valid at the borehole location.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[BNGeo]

Thanks Dave - maybe if I reword / clarify this a bit - if the project falls under IBC and therefore there is a need for Special Inspections, a Statement of Special Inspections is prepared that lists the Design Professional in Responsible Charge.

The owner has an engineer for the overall project, but in this case there is a designer-builder for the water tank, and that designer-builder prepared full foundation design for the tank. The owner's engineer performed borings and provided boring data to the designer-builder. So in this instance, who should be listed on Statement of Special Inspections as the Design Professional in Responsible Charge?

 

[GeoEnvGuy]

I have never heard of a statement of special inspections. For a typical foundation job the geotech does the borings, writes a report to provide foundation design recommendations, the structural engineer then designs the foundation. For shallow foundations the geotech engineer is required to inspect the foundation and issue a letter that the foundation conditions meet the investigation conditions expected (hopefully) and that gets used to check the box for the building permit that the foundation inspection was done. This puts the responsibility on the geotech to confirm the recommendations in there report are still valid, this does not take the liability of the structural engineer for the structural components.

 

[BNGeo]

GeoEnv - the inspections are per section 17 of IBC. The statement lists the inspection services required for the project and is issued to the building inspector, but the designer of record. You’ll find examples if you search google for statement of special inspections. However, in my example of the tank, the tank designer is designing the foundations (geotechnically and structurally) based on the borings.

 

[DanielSgeo]

Something like this is common for ground improvement or specialty foundation jobs where the foundations are design-build. For these, the geotech of record stamps a report that provides subsurface conditions and may include baseline assumptions and foundation performance reqs. The foundation designer/engineer of record designs and stamps the design, that is based on the soil props in the geotech report.

 

[Jrit]

We deal with special inspections quite often. I would expect the schedule of special inspections for this project to be produced by the tank design engineer who would be listed as engineer of record. We, as geotechnical engineers, even when we produce a report, which doesn't sound like the case here, do not prepare the schedule of inspections for structures that are designed based on our report.

 

[BNGeo]

Thanks Jrit. That is what I was expecting. In this case the contractor asked if we need to inspect the tank foundation subgrades. My take is that the tank designer should be responsible for that.

 

[GeoEnvGuy]

The geotech's special inspection and test requirements I previously mentioned regarding shallow foundations are listed in 1705.6 soils. You will also notice the approved geotechnical report is listed in conjunction with the construction documents to determine compliance for the various foundation options, if the boring information was sent to another firm to do the geotech and structural design they would be the design engineer.