civil_engineering_paperwork v1.0.0

name: "civil_engineering_paperwork" description: "Produce civil engineering paperwork a reviewer can sign: site observation reports from visit notes and photos, RFI responses that cite the drawings and spec sections, and fee proposals built from scope and hours, with anything unverified flagged instead of guessed. Use when drafting or checking an observation report, a field report, an RFI response, a fee proposal or scope and fee letter, or a drawing and spec citation in any construction phase document."

Civil Engineering Paperwork

Purpose

Turn field notes, photos, questions, and scope lists into civil engineering documents that hold up under review: an observation report where each item has a location and a photo, an RFI response where every drawing and spec citation checks against the issued set, and a fee proposal where every dollar traces to hours, a rate, or a quoted figure. Anything that cannot be verified stays visible as a flag. A flagged document can be fixed. A document with a guessed sheet number, a sharpened date, or an unpriced task reads as finished and fails later, in the field or in a dispute.

This is process guidance, not engineering judgment and not legal advice. Design decisions, interpretations that require design, and signing and sealing belong to the licensed engineer in responsible charge of the work, under the board rules of the state where the work sits. This skill builds and checks the paperwork around those decisions.

Workflow

1. Build the project index before drafting anything. One row per issued drawing sheet with number, exact title, revision, and issue date, taken from the issued set, and one row per issued spec section with its six digit number and exact title from the project manual table of contents. Save it as a CSV in the form of assets/worked-index.csv. Add a contract block: agreement form, the clause that sets the RFI response period, the clause that governs changes, and the observation scope the engineer actually agreed to. Without this index there is no citation check, only citation typing.
2. Know which citation system the project uses, from its own documents. Current CSI MasterFormat runs 50 divisions numbered 00 to 49. Civil work concentrates in the Site and Infrastructure subgroup: Division 31 Earthwork, Division 32 Exterior Improvements, Division 33 Utilities, Division 34 Transportation, and Division 35 Waterway and Marine Construction. Older projects may still use the earlier 16 division system. Read the project table of contents and cite what it uses. Never convert a number from memory and never supply a section title the project manual does not print.
3. Separate observation from inspection, in writing, at the top of the work. Observation is visiting the site at intervals to judge whether the work is in general conformance with the contract documents. Inspection and testing are different duties, often held by other parties. IBC Section 1704.6 makes the split concrete for structural observation: where it is required, the owner employs a registered design professional to perform it, the observer files a statement of frequency and extent before starting and a closing statement listing unresolved deficiencies, and the duty does not waive the separate inspections in Section 110 or the special inspections in Section 1705. Copy the observation scope from the agreement into the report header notes so the report never claims more than the engineer agreed to do.
4. Write the observation report from notes and photos the same day. Header: project, report number, date, start and end time, weather, observer, and who was on site. For each observation give a location a reader can find again, by station, structure number, grid, or lot, the sheet or detail that governs it, and the photo number. Record conforming work as well as problems, with date, area, and what was seen. A record that only lists defects cannot later prove a visit covered work that was fine, and guidance for engineers who provide construction observation makes the same point: document visits even when the work conforms, with date, time, area, observations, and photographs, and put any deviation notice to the client in writing.
5. Write each deficiency so it can be closed. State what was observed, where, the drawing or spec citation that sets the requirement, who was told on site, and when it will be rechecked. Carry open items forward from report to report by number, as still open, resolved with the evidence named, or escalated. Where a code observation duty applies, distribution is part of the document, not an afterthought. In the Los Angeles County version of the IBC rule, deficiencies go in writing to the owner or owner agent, the special inspector, the contractor, and the building official, with a statement at each significant stage and a final report that all observed deficiencies have been resolved before acceptance.
6. Draft the RFI response in the order a reviewer reads it. Restate the single question. List the documents checked, by citation, before answering. Then answer: what governs, what to build, and where that comes from. Follow the shape of AIA Document G716, the standard Request for Information form: the requester lists the drawing, specification, or submittal already reviewed while trying to find the information, states the information needed and the requested reply date, and the form carries space for a recommendation and for the response. Work references/checklists.md for the full RFI check, including answering a contractor proposed solution directly instead of talking past it.
7. Run the citation checker on every report and RFI response, on the final version. Run python3 scripts/citation_check.py <document> --index <project-index.csv>. It extracts sheet citations such as C-401 and spec citations in Section form, checks each against the index, and exits with code 2 when any citation is not in the index. Treat that exit code as a block. In the worked example in assets/worked-rfi-response.md, 15 citations check against assets/worked-index.csv with 0 not in index and exit code 0. A citation to Sheet C-999 or Section 99 99 99 fails with code 2, as it should. Fix a failed citation from the issued set, or keep it flagged in the document. Never fix it by picking a nearby number that sounds right.
8. Keep the RFI inside its authority. Neither an RFI nor its response authorizes work that increases contract cost or time. That limit is printed in the AIA G716 instructions and it is the line that keeps a clarification from becoming an unpaid, or unapproved, change. Write the cost and time note into every response. If the honest answer directs work beyond the issued documents, say so, and route that part through the contract change process and, where new design is needed, through design and sealing, not through the RFI log.
9. Log the RFI the same day. Number, topic, date received, required response date from the contract, citations relied on, response date, status, and links to any change, submittal, or observation item it creates. There is no universal response deadline to copy from a guide: the contract for this project sets it, and the log entry should quote that period from the contract block built in step 1.
10. Build a fee proposal from counted scope, not from a percentage or a remembered total. Write scope as tasks with countable deliverables, meetings, visits, and reviews, grouped by the phases the agreement form uses. The EJCDC pattern is a useful spine: study and report, preliminary design, final design, bidding or negotiation, construction, and post construction services, with construction phase work that includes observing the work, responding to RFIs, reviewing submittals, recommending payment, and inspecting at substantial completion. If a Resident Project Representative is included, say so and scope the site time separately, since under EJCDC C-700 the RPR is the engineer authorized representative at the site and that presence is what the fee is buying.
11. Price the scope with the builder, and clear every error before the proposal moves. Enter each line in a CSV in the form of assets/worked-fee.csv: phase, task, kind, role, hours, rate or amount, and the source for the figure. Run python3 scripts/fee_builder.py <scope.csv>. Labor lines price at hours times rate, expense and subconsultant lines price at their stated amount, and the builder exits with code 2 for any line missing its hours, rate, amount, or source. In the worked build, Study and Report totals $10,880.00, Final Design $28,520.00, Bidding $2,940.00, and Construction Phase $25,350.00, for a grand total of $67,690.00. The rates there are a fictional firm rate sheet dated in the example. Replace them with the firm current sheet and record its date in the proposal file.
12. Build observation hours from the construction calendar, and say what the calendar assumes. Count visits, hours on site per visit, and report and photo log time per visit, as the worked example does with 30 visits behind its 120 observer hours. State the assumption in the proposal and state what happens when construction runs past it. Under the EJCDC exhibit pattern, additional services need written owner authorization before the work is done and are paid at hours times the standard rates for each billing class, plus reimbursable expenses and consultant charges. A proposal that prices that path in advance prevents the common failure where site time quietly outruns a lump sum.
13. State what the fee includes, in the fee form language. EJCDC Exhibit C practice distributes a lump sum by phase, bills each period on the percentage of services actually completed, and treats the lump sum as including the items the exhibit lists, such as consultants, labor, overhead, profit, and reimbursable expenses where stated. Match the proposal words to the exhibit that will carry them: what is inside the sum, what is reimbursable on top of it, and which figures are allowances with a true up rule. List exclusions in the open, including redesign after approval and meetings or visits beyond the counted number.
14. Handle public selection honestly where it applies. For federal architect and engineer work, the Brooks Act at 40 U.S.C. 1101 to 1104 requires selection on demonstrated competence and qualifications, with discussion and ranking, and only then negotiation of fair and reasonable compensation with the top ranked firm. Price does not enter the selection stage, and federal aid highway work follows the same qualifications based approach under 23 CFR 172. Where a solicitation works that way, submit qualifications and fee the way it directs, often separately, and never pitch the fee as a reason to be selected.
15. Do the final review in references/checklists.md before anything is signed. Citation checker clean on the final version, every number traced to a calculation, a source, or a labelled assumption, and every flag either resolved with its source recorded or still visible in the issued document. Check the seal block: the signer must be in responsible charge and licensed where the work sits. State rules set the detail and they differ. Florida Rule 61G15-23.001 is one stated example: final plans, specifications, and reports filed for public record or given to the owner are signed, dated, and sealed by the engineer in responsible charge with expertise in the discipline, and non final documents carry a face marking such as Preliminary, For Review Only, or Not for Construction instead of a seal. Read the rule for the project state and record it, do not borrow Florida rule for work elsewhere.

Output Contract

• Project index: CSV of issued drawings and spec sections with revisions, plus the contract block and, for proposals, the rate and seal blocks from the checklists.
• Site observation report: numbered report with header, scope sentence, located observations with photo numbers, conforming work recorded, deficiencies written so each can be closed, and open items carried forward by number.
• Photo log: one row per photo with number, location, direction of view, and subject, matching the report that cites it.
• RFI response: single question restated, documents checked by citation, direct answer, contractor proposal answered where one exists, cost and time note, and any revision or design flag left visible.
• Citation check output: the checker result for the final version of each document, with zero not in index citations, or the unresolved citations flagged in the document itself.
• RFI log entry: number, topic, dates, contract response period, citations, status, and linked changes or follow ups.
• Fee proposal: scope by phase with countable tasks, the builder output with phase subtotals and grand total, dated rate sheet source, subconsultant quotes named, inclusions and allowances in fee form language, and assumptions and exclusions listed.
• Flag list: every unverified item in the package, what source would settle it, and where the flag appears in the issued document if it ships unresolved.

Operating Rules

• No citation without the index. If a sheet or section is not in the project index built from the issued set, it does not go into a document as if it were checked. It goes in as a flag, or it does not go in.
• No number without a source. Dimensions, clearances, quantities, percentages complete, hours, and rates each trace to a drawing, a spec, a calculation, a test result, a dated rate sheet, or a quote. A figure from memory or from a prior project is a flag, not a value.
• Never sharpen a rough note. If the field note says near Sta 15, the report says near Sta 15 or flags the station as unconfirmed. Dates, times, and locations do not gain precision during typing.
• Not observed means not observed. Do not write up testing, concealed work, or prior visits the observer did not witness as if they were seen. State the limit and cite the other party report, by its own number and date, where the document relies on it.
• Observation language stays inside observation authority. Reports record conformance and flag defects for the parties who hold direction authority. They do not direct the contractor to change the work, approve changes, or promise payment, unless the agreement for this project grants that authority in words the report can quote.
• An RFI response is an interpretation, not a change and not new design. Route price, time, and design consequences through the contract process they belong to, and name that routing in the response.
• Drafts stay marked as drafts. Non final documents carry the limitation marking the state rule and the firm practice require, and no document is sealed by anyone other than the engineer in responsible charge of that work.
• Privacy and record discipline are part of the paperwork. Keep the issued set, the index, the checker output, and the builder output with the document they support, so a later reader can re-run the same checks and get the same result.