Volume 7, Issue 1
January/February 2007

It is crucial to the success of a project that those responsible for the preparation of specifications understand the importance of specifications and their impact on the schedule, cost, and quality of the completed project. Furthermore, construction case law has established that specification requirements take legal precedence over plan requirements.

Despite these facts, “importance in preparation of Specifications has been lost in the design process of many projects due to budget constraints,” according to John Morey, Aff.M.ASCE, a long standing member of the CI Specifications Committee. “Unfortunately, many projects face a ZERO budget for developing not only the specifications but the contract documents.

“In light of these constraints and the advent of computers, the consideration of industry standards and methods of construction seem to have taken a back seat to a ‘cut-and-paste’ approach to preparing not only specifications but contract documents as well. This approach not only opens an avenue for design errors, but bidding issues, costly change orders, cost over-runs and not only dissatisfied owners but a tarnished image of engineers and constructors.

“Whether the CSI MasterFormat™, the EJCDC (Engineers Joint Contracts Document Committee) Contract Documents, one governed by the owner, or your own way of presenting these documents, an awareness needs to be made on the methodology for preparing specifications and contracts and not and ‘standard’ templates and a ‘cut-and-paste’ approach,” says Morey.

The CI Specifications Committee provides a forum for practitioners to share experiences and for younger professionals, it is a forum from which one can gain

CI Specifications Committee meets in LA

valuable insight from “seasoned” practitioners that is becoming more and more difficult to come by. The CI Specifications Committee is one of three technical committees under the purview of the CI Engineering Directorate. The purpose of the committee is to formulate recommendations for improving the quality of construction specifications and upgrading the qualifications of the specifications engineer.

This committee met mid-January in Los Angeles. Discussions included the development of a seminar on the Preparation of Contract Documents/Specifications for Engineering and Technical Staff Members that will be held in Reno, NV Feb ruary 22-23 and San Antonio, TX March 29-30. The seminar has been designed to provide a standard rhythm in developing contract specifications for design engineers, contract engineering support staff, and contractors in interpreting specifications.

In addition, a discussion of the CSI (Construction Specification Institute) MasterFormat™ 2004 Edition and the committee’s previous work on an Engineering Project Spec Standard revealed that many agencies are now calling for the new format, and that there are already several completed projects that used the CSI MasterFormat™ 2004 Edition.

The suggestion was made for the committee to review the CSI MasterFormat™ 2004 Edition and identify items that could be added. In addition, a list of topics will be distributed to CI members for review and comment that will eventually be used to identify gaps in the CSI MasterFormat™ and communicated to CSI.

The committee is also involved in the development of the Guide for Preparing Requests for Proposals Documents and Specifications for Design-Build Projects and considering an update to the previously published Preparing Specifications for Design-Bid-Build Projects.

If you are interested in becoming involved with the Construction Specifications committee or have any questions or general comments, please feel free to contact Marvin Oey, Director of the Construction Institute, at moey@asce.org.