Structural Engineer's Role in Special Inspections (Front End) 1

[RobertHale]

My firm was acquired by a larger firm in the past year, and we are now undertaking the task of unifying the way we do business. One of those items that have come up is our role in defining special inspection requirements and the required code documents. My old firm had a fairly robust set of documents but they effectively forced us to define the requirements for non-structural items. This seemed to be okay within the geographic area we did most of our work in. Now that we are part of the larger firm, the area of our work is much broader. I am interested in an informal survey of some pretty basic information.
[ol 1]
[li]What has been your role in generating the Schedule of Special Inspection? Do you only define the structural special inspection items, or are you defining all the special inspection items when you work on the Schedule?[/li]
[li]What has been your role in generating the Statment of Special Inspection? Do you always create it? What party is typically the Registered Design Professional In Responsible Charge?[/li]
[li]What is your role in the Seismic/Wind Requirements, and do you generate forms for these?[/li]
[li]What do you typically put on the drawings, and what do you put in the project manual? Do you generate any specification sections or additional documents that stand outside the typical Construction documents?[/li]
[li]Do you ever work with institutional/government owners that upset the typical scheme where the owner selects/pays the special inspector, and the reports are submitted to the building official as well as the design team?[/li]
[li]Do you use forms and documents created inside your office or are they generated by an industry org or an NGO? Also, do you use forms generated for one jurisdiction inside other jurisdictions?[/li]
[li]What jurisdiction do you do the majority of your work in?[/li]
[/ol]
I realize I may be a "country mouse" in the big city, but I want to try and get as much information as I can and understand how this process works in different parts of the country. I want to make meaningful input to the discussion. And i need more data points to come to a reasoned position.

 

[JedClampett]

[ol 1]
[li]What has been your role in generating the Schedule of Special Inspection? Do you only define the structural special inspection items, or are you defining all the special inspection items when you work on the Schedule?[/li] All the items.
[li]What has been your role in generating the Statment of Special Inspection? Do you always create it? What party is typically the Registered Design Professional In Responsible Charge?[/li] If it's what I think it is, we do it before construction commences. I'm the Registered Design Professional In Responsible Charge
[li]What is your role in the Seismic/Wind Requirements, and do you generate forms for these?[/li] Don't understand. We make drawings for every building defining the C & C wind loads. Seismic lateral loads are posted on the drawings.
[li]What do you typically put on the drawings, and what do you put in the project manual? Do you generate any specification sections or additional documents that stand outside the typical Construction documents?[/li] We try to put everything in specifications, but some clients insist they go on the drawings.
[li]Do you ever work with institutional/government owners that upset the typical scheme where the owner selects/pays the special inspector, and the reports are submitted to the building official as well as the design team?[/li] Almost never, but we do a lot of projects in a lot of places.
[li]Do you use forms and documents created inside your office or are they generated by an industry org or an NGO? Also, do you use forms generated for one jurisdiction inside other jurisdictions?[/li] Mostly internally developed.
[li]What jurisdiction do you do the majority of your work in?[/li] Used to be southwest US and Cali, but now coast to coast.
[/ol]

 

[RobertHale]

@JedClampett
To clarify item 3. I am talking about the subparagraphs of the Statement of Special inspections (IBC2018 1704.3.2 and 1704.3.3). In my jurisdiction, we have a form for each of these with places for the required information. It also has the pertinent information (Wind Speed and exposure or seismic design category) for triggering the requirement.

 

[Jrit]

One note I would add is that on many projects (especially smaller ones) we only get the drawings. As the special inspector firm, it helps us to have the schedule in the drawings. It is also common in our area to provide them on the drawings. We are in the southeast.

 

[Aesur]

What has been your role in generating the Schedule of Special Inspection? Do you only define the structural special inspection items, or are you defining all the special inspection items when you work on the Schedule?
We generate the SSI tables on our drawings for the structural items, architects tend to include non-structural architectural items and mechanical tends to do theirs.

What has been your role in generating the Statment of Special Inspection? Do you always create it? What party is typically the Registered Design Professional In Responsible Charge?
We will generate the statement of special inspections for permits when needed, however we tend to point them to have the firm they intend on using do the SSI forms. The EOR is the EOR, however for SSI firm doing the inspections (many times geotechnical firms) is required to have a registered engineer who is knowledgeable of the project and seals the SSI form. Many times the Architect is listed on the form as being in responsible charge.

What is your role in the Seismic/Wind Requirements, and do you generate forms for these?
We specify seismic and wind requirements based on the code requirements per chapter 17 of the IBC. Typically there are triggers for when these are required.

What do you typically put on the drawings, and what do you put in the project manual? Do you generate any specification sections or additional documents that stand outside the typical Construction documents?
We put SSI tables on the drawings. We rarely have spec books to deal with, and when we do, I don't recall their being SSI in them other than referencing the drawings. Why would you need more? Many SSI firms have their own forms they complete for SSI.

Do you ever work with institutional/government owners that upset the typical scheme where the owner selects/pays the special inspector, and the reports are submitted to the building official as well as the design team?
100% of our projects the owner selects and pays the SSI, this is how it is supposed to be done per code from my understanding. You never want the contractor hiring the SSI firm as there is a conflict of interest if they do. The SSI firm is supposed to represent the owners best interest.

Do you use forms and documents created inside your office or are they generated by an industry org or an NGO? Also, do you use forms generated for one jurisdiction inside other jurisdictions?
Custom forms created inside our office in the rare instance we do SSI.

What jurisdiction do you do the majority of your work in?
Across the US, but mostly the West. In almost every market we have worked in, it's been cheaper for the owner to hire a local geotechnical company to do the SSI rather than the engineer, no one wants to pay our hourly rates.