review of shop drawings 1

[v2]

why and why not?

should a third party, registered engineer, (other than the Engineer of Record) review the shop drawings and provide the entire Construction Administration phase for a 25000 SF two-story wharehouse?

why and why not? please state reasons and backup your position on this issue.

thanks

V2

 

[JAE]

Most U.S. building codes require at least some site visits by the engineer of record.

Also, the TRUE purpose of requiring shop drawings are twofold:

1. Forces the contractor to develop exact plans of the individual pieces and the erection of your structural elements. This aids the fabricators and streamlines the fabrication process. It also makes the contractor really "get into" the project and in the process, many issues of construction, means & methods, and scheduling appear, helping the contractor to do the job better.

2. Allows the engineer of record one method of determining IF the contractor is correctly INTERPRETING the design plans. Your plans and specs are a communication tool, and the shop drawing reviews permit a check on whether you are adequately communicating.

A third party reviewer can satisfy item 2 above IF that reviewer does indeed understand your plans. But there are always subtleties in any design and the engineer of record can do it best.

This same item (2 above) is achieved by the on-site observations. You look for general conformance to your design plans....not to check/inspect every little piece of work for conformance....but to verify that the contractor can indeed properly interpret your plans.

In other words, if they get a sequence of rebar placed properly in one place, they therefore have the ability to properly get it right in all the other places of similar condition.

So a third party reviewer or on-site observer must be able to interpret your plans to do this job right. How do you know that they can do this?

 

[v2]

Jae,

I have no way of knowing if he can do it right. The question now is:

Am I liable as the Engineer of Record for his errors?


The client does not want to pay for Construction Administration. Therefore, I waved my responsibilities to administer the construction process. Moreover, I will never hear from anyone about the progress of work or after. In other words, I am out of the loop permanently. In addition, I do not know who will be handling the Construction Administration phase.


Thanks


V2

 

[JAE]

We get a number of projects where this happens..usually in the federal gov't agencies.

What you could do is call the owner and suggest that AT LEAST you provide some periodic observations to see if the work generally conforms to your plans. If you are under the IBC or UBC, you could point to the Chapter 17 paragraphs that indicate the requirements for Structural Observations.

If they refuse, then simply document your telephone conversation, including your offer of services, and put it in your project file.

Some may suggest that by showing up on the site you take on added liability...but I'd rather be able to be on the project to ensure the success of my design as much as possible. You can be sued regardless of whether you set foot on the site or not.