The Specification Committee of the Construction Institute of ASCE is very active in the development of Contract Specifications for Engineering projects and other related subject matter. The committee’s mission is to improve Specifications to minimize claims and efficiently prepare contract documents that are constructible and biddable.
The Committee at the present time is completing the Manual on Guidelines for Design-Build Projects, which will be available in the near future with CI/ASCE. The committee previously published a manual on Preparing Specifications for Design-Bid-Build Projects, which is available through the ASCE book store. The committee has completed and has been approved for presenting a short course on The Preparation of Contract Documents/Specifications which was developed for both engineering and technical staff members that will be presented by John Morey, M.ASCE and/or Eli Abdallah, M.ASCE as a future continuing education course through CI/ASCE.
The main focus of the short course is to show the development of the contract documents and specifications using a standard methodology with emphases on using the industry’s latest codes and standards and the coordination between the contract documents/plans and specifications.
The committee is accepting new members who are interested in improving the Specifications for Civil Engineering Projects. Through their efforts they have prepared a Standard Format for Civil Engineering projects of which portions have been entered within the Masterformat 2004 for CSI. Committee member Eli Abdallah has been appointed to the Masterformat Maintenance Committee and Dennis Erwin (a member of CI) to the CSI Section Format Committee.
If you are interested in joining the Construction Institute’s Specifications Committee, please contact Eli Abdallah at Abdallah@pbworld.com.
Construction Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers