Construction Specification: Five Things You Should Know About the Intent of Construction Documents

Blog post by Dennis Buirge on June 6, 2011

As a general rule, a typical Owner/Architect agreement divides the project design work scope into 5 phases with the following corresponding percentages as part of the total remuneration: schematic design (SD) - 15%; design development (DD) - 20%; construction documentation (CD) - 40%; bidding - 5%; and construction administration (CA) - 20%. 

It is in the construction documentation phase that various project documents are synthesized and finalized for bidding. Most documents used by the Contractor fall in the bidding and construction work phases; documents used in these two phases, in most cases, are not the same. Understanding the various documents for technical accuracy and related nomenclature are therefore important when preparing a deliverable to the Owner.

The Construction Specification Institute (CSI) identifies the following document types in their Project Resource Manual (PRM): construction documents, procurement documents, and contract documents. These documents have multiple components, which include bidding information, contracting requirements and forms, general requirements, specifications, various types of drawings, addenda, and contract modifications.  The correct term must be correctly used in each application.  The following summarizes the intent of Construction Documents (CDs):

* Official Definition:  “Written and graphic documents prepared or assembled by the A/E for communicating the project design for construction and administering the construction contract”. ¹

* General Purposes:  CDs are used to define the project for bidding; obtain permits from Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJ); execute the construction contract(s); and guide construction from administrative and procedural perspectives.

* Rule of Thumb:  Since each component has a specific purpose and should be used for that purpose, state each requirement only one time and in the correct location, i.e., information in one document should not be repeated in other documents.

* Universality:  Basic concepts for creating, preparing, organizing, and coordinating construction documents are applicable, whether a project is simple or complex, whether it is bid publically or privately, and whether one or multiple prime construction contracts apply.

* Various Types:  Procurement documents and Contract documents.

With one of the goals of this blog being a forum for reviewing construction terminology, document terms will be defined at multiple times in future blogs.

Note 1:  Page 5.2, Project Resource Manual as distributed by The Construction Specification Institute.

Comments

[Teemu Sainio]

Documents are very important,to be honest i am not quite good into that but you really give me a lesson about it,in Helsinki Finland they do most of it,they have a team to organize the construction.Excellent one :)