Illegal Plan Stamping?

[rww88]

How many of you have seen the website whereon a Pennsylvania P.E. is blantanly advertising “plan stamping” services? If you have not, after reading this message, point your browser to

http://www.engineerapprovals.com.

This website's service flies in the face of every engineering licensing law that I have ever encountered. Simply put, the laws generally state that seals should not be affixed to work that is not yours. The mere reviewing of another individual’s work does not constitute “responsible charge.” Responsible charge means that the work has been personally prepared by the engineer or prepared under his responsible supervision, direction and control. In my opinion, this individual is acting as if his P.E. seal is similar to a notary’s seal and that his professional services are merely a commodity. What is your opinion?

 

[zdas04]

WOW! I wonder if his stamp has "My Term Expires on _____"?

Interesting concept, but I'd be pretty reluctant to offer the same service on my web page. Interesting that every reference is to "stamped documents" not to "engineering design". I wonder if anyone has brought this to the attention of the Penn board of registration?

David

 

[stevenal]

When in doubt, blame the "marketing people."

http://www.nspe.org/etweb/10604engineerapprovals.asp

 

[zdas04]

Good find Stevenal. Notice that he modified his web page in MAY and mid-June it still riled us up this much. I sure would have hated to have run across it in April.

David

 

[JAE]

This has already been covered in a previous thread - the individual has been reported to the state of Penn....not sure what the status is.

 

[DRC1]

Plan Stamping is fairly common in construction, although this is the first time I have heard of it being advertised. I don't think it is nessesarily wrong or even unlawful. Many contractors have excelent concepts that need to be finalized into a design. Many contracts require a PE stamp for a design that is clearly shown in the contract. Erosion control plans are an example of this. it is often detailed in the specs that stamped drawings be submitted, yet the contract (which consists of stamped drawins) contains the desired erosion control plan. It simply needs to be copied, checked for errors or omissions and stamped.
More complicated plans such as rigging or shoring are also devloped by the contractor. Often an analysis must be done and adjustments made to the drawing.
Although the draing is not developed under the P.E.'s direction, the review is and the final drawing carries the responsibility for sound engineering.
In short if done properly, I don't see the practice as bad, but obviously there are avenues for abuse and dangerous shortcuts.

 

[IRstuff]

Can this guy really proof 50 sheets for the number of hours that $950 pays for? If his effective hourly rate is $50, that's 19 hrs or 22.8 minutes per sheet.

Our drawing QA used to take about an hour per sheet just for catching format and other non-engineering errors.

If he's taking an hour per sheet, that's only $19/hr, which is pretty desperate as ahourly rate.

TTFN