Engineer's Duty to Respond to the AHJ

[phamENG]

Question: does the Engineer of Record for a project have a duty to respond to comments from the AHJ during plan review and permitting?

I'm NOT referring to contractual obligations - this is more of an ethical/statutory thing. State laws being state laws, it's Virginia in case anyone has any specific knowledge, but generally around the US would be good to know, too.

My specific case: had a client ask me to take a look at a prefab building. The AHJ won't give him a permit for it because the engineered drawings supplied by the manufacturer and the manufacturer's engineer don't have all of the information mandated by the code on them. The EOR has essentially told the owner of this unpermittable building that what's on the drawing is all they get.

This is completely foreign to me - I've always assumed that I was required to carry a design at least as far as responding to review questions/comments and have carried out my business that way. Once it gets approval (the AHJ essentially saying yes, the building is code compliant), then matters change and it depends on whether or not I have a contract for CA, etc. But I always thought that I had to at least go along with the review process. Am I mistaken? Is there no requirement? I'm not planning to change how I do things, but I don't want to tell my client that the other engineer is required to do something he's really not. And the flip side of that, I'd love to tell my client that the drawings are missing X Y and Z and, by the way, the other engineer is required by such-and-such to provide it. Then I don't have to get my hands too dirty in proving this building works...

 

[JStructsteel]

Can owner get a different manufacture to build building and provide whats required?

 

[phamENG]

Already delivered, so not in this instance.

 

[WinelandV]

phamENG,

From where I'm sitting, your owner can either try to force the issue with the prefab engineer (whether w/ withholding payment; threaten a lawsuit; never do business with them again) or they can chalk this whole thing up to a lesson learned and eat the cost, and get a new structure from someone else.

The only other play you might have with the "EOR" might be with the state board - something along the lines of not meeting some standard of practice for Virginia. This one is a long-shot and definitely more of "throw it against the wall and see if it sticks".

Super-Ultra-Longshot - find someone knowledgeable/capable of checking the prefab trusses and having them take ownership of the design. This will likely cost your owner more $$, tho. But, unless something shakes out with the state board, I don't see your owner getting out of this w/o paying more.

 

[phamENG]

winelandv - thanks. Not so super-ulta-longshot. These are simple trusses, so I'm equipped to assess them. I have to dust of TP-1 and refresh myself on some of the metal plate voodoo, but cest la vie. As much as I'd love for the owner to chase down the manufacturer and force them to make it right, he just wants to be done so I'll be taking it on and specifying any modifications if they are necessary.

 

[mfrad]

PhamENG

AHJ most likely wants site specific building layout, soil borings, geotech report, seismic, snow and wind loads, foundation, plumbing, electrical drawings etc. Owner theoretically needs to hire his own arch, structural, mechanicals firms for a full package. The PEMB documents are limited (delegate design service)and similar to a steel joist manufacturer’s PE calculations that are sometimes requested by the project designers. The joist like the PEMB can be placed anywhere in the world that the design team desires. The EOR needs to transfer PEMB reactions only to the EOR foundation drawings. It’ll be up to the Owner to assemble the team to meet filing requirements.

 

[Warhamer]

phamENG,

You mentioned the building is factory built. Is it subject to the VA industrialized building regulations? Depending on where the trusses are installed they could be covered under the compliance agencies review, represented by the third party label and VA state label, and not the local.

EIT, Modular Building Industry

 

[phamENG]

An intriguing thought, Warhamer. Thank you. I'll look into it.