PURPOSE
This procedure describes the general or typical aspects of preparing detailed design documents (plans, specifications, calculations, etc.) for capital improvement projects managed by the Bureau of Engineering (BOE). It also describes the criteria and process for notifying unions of construction projects. The notification process should be initiated at this point in plan development. The Design Phase follows the Pre-Design Phase and precedes the Bid and Award Phase of a project. Due to the wide variety of capital projects managed by the BOE, Procedures 8.1.1 through 8.1.5 have been developed to describe various project types in more detail.
Engineering calculations and technical specifications, which are a key component of a complete design package, are also discussed in this Procedure. Additional discussion for technical specifications is available in Procedure 8.2. Refer to Chapter 10 for a comprehensive discussion of project specifications and bid proposals.
REFERENCES
Standard Specifications for Public Works Construction (Green Book) – Latest Edition
American Public Works Association – Standard Plans for Public Works Construction
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Project Manager (PM): The PM is responsible, normally through the efforts of the Project Engineer, for the completion of the design documents within the schedule and to the satisfaction of the client. The PM is also responsible for insuring that quality assurance/quality control procedures are followed and that the project remains within the approved budget and is consistent with the concept presented in the Pre-Design Report. The PM must also determine if union notification is required and prepare the notification to be sent, if it is necessary.
- Project Engineer (PE): The PE will be responsible for the preparation, coordination, updating, and revision of the design and construction documents. The PE is required to follow the procedures outlined in this Chapter to protect public health, safety, welfare, and to ensure successful completion of the project. These procedures facilitate the production of accurate, consistent, complete, and understandable final plans and specifications to be used to initiate and complete the construction of a project. The PE is responsible for coordinating the design documents with all of the design disciplines that have contributed to the project.
PROCEDURE
Design Process Overview
The design process for BOE projects can involve many engineering disciplines. Design disciplines can include architectural and landscape architectural, civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and control, and process engineering. Support disciplines can include environmental, geotechnical, survey, and real estate. The start of the design process is at the conclusion of the Pre-Design Phase and the issuance of the Pre-Design Report or Technical Memorandum. The Client must approve the Final Pre-Design Report and/or Technical Memorandum, which must include an Analysis of Alternatives and identify the selected project. For small projects, the Technical Memorandum may take the place of the Pre-Design Report. For all projects, the Client must sign the Final Pre-Design Report/Technical Memorandum.
Some design plan development can occur during the Pre-Design Phase. At the conclusion of the Pre-Design Phase, project plan development can be anywhere between the 10% and 25% plan completion point depending on the type of project and the discipline. An exception to this may occur with air/water quality and wastewater treatment plant projects where process and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs) will likely be at or close to 90% complete, and the process flow sheet and description should be 100% complete at the conclusion of the Pre-Design Phase. Building projects may also be an exception and will likely have initiated the Schematic Phase prior to the conclusion of Pre-Design (see Procedure 8.1.1 for a building project phase comparison).
Plan development for the Design Phase will progress into the details of design and inter-discipline coordination. The key discipline for establishing basic design constraints in building projects is architectural engineering. The key discipline for establishing basic design constraints for street, storm drain, and sewer projects is civil engineering. For air/water quality and wastewater treatment projects, process, mechanical, and civil engineering disciplines are critical for establishing basic design constraints. The lead discipline will have been established during the Pre-Design Phase and this will continue throughout development of the detailed design.
The lead discipline will be responsible for establishing the key aspects of the design plans including the general layout or alignment of project features. For large projects, backgrounds utilized for multi-discipline plans will be created and maintained by the lead discipline. The design approach established by the lead discipline should be followed by the supporting disciplines throughout the plan development process. Close inter-discipline coordination up to the 50% plan completion point will significantly reduce duplication and the need for additional plan sheets later during the Design Phase.
The design process will proceed under the guidance of the PE who may be the lead designer or may be a part of a larger multi-discipline team. Milestones in the development of project plans can include internal interim reviews (i.e., 20%, 50% and 90% design review), squad check (both single and multi-disciplinary reviews), formal external reviews (i.e., technical review committee, program oversight committee or value engineering), and regular quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) reviews, including the completion of QA/QC checklists. For typical plan set requirements, refer to Procedure 8.8 and for CADD standards, refer to Procedure 8.9 and the BOE CADD Standards contained on the Intranet.
The conclusion of the Design Phase will be defined by the completion of the design documents (plans and specifications), completion of all signature and stamp requirements for design documents (plans, specifications and calculations), and completion of the Ready to Advertise (RTA) checklist. The RTA checklist must be completed prior to the District Engineer/City Engineer signature.
Design Phase Initiation
Typically, once the Client approves and signs the Pre-Design Report, the Design Team initiates the Design Phase by requesting a survey, Historic Structures Report, Hazardous Materials Report and geotechnical report, if applicable, and begins the development of detailed design documents. A review of utilities and utility capacities should also be initiated at this point of the project. Because of the variability of the Design Phase among the various BOE project types, Procedures 8.1.1 through 8.1.5 have been developed to specifically address the detailed design documents for each project type.
Code Research, Permitting and Dedication/Improvements
The majority of code research should be completed in the Pre-Design Phase. Code research involves evaluating the relevant local, state and federal regulations that protect public health, safety, and welfare. City projects must follow the same path as equivalent private development projects. Review of zoning regulations, local ordinances, specific plans, legal restrictions (such as easements), and dedication and improvement requirements is critically important. All permitting issues and permit requirements must also be identified early in the Design Phase. Significant environmental compliance/permitting change in use, and dedication/improvement requirements should have been identified in the Pre-Design Phase. The PE and Design Team are to complete the following research tasks:
- Identify and evaluate the public health, safety, and welfare issues relevant to the project
- Research and evaluate local, state and federal regulations that govern the project and complete an analysis of code issues, compliance requirements, permit requirements, and compliance time lines
- Identify the specific environmental compliance/permitting, zoning, dedication, and improvement requirements applicable to the project and incorporate these into the design schedule.
If the project involves environmental review and/or permitting, land acquisition, change in use, dedication and/or improvements, the PE must fully understand and anticipate the Design Phase impacts of these activities.
Notification to Unions for Construction Projects
The City Charter requires that unions be notified of contracts where the City determines that work can be performed more economically or feasibly by independent contractors than by City employees. The City Attorney and City Administrative Officer have determined that this Charter section, which has for a number of years been applied to personal services contracting in the City, also applies to construction contracts. For the type of work done by the BOE, the affected union that might be impacted is the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 721.
The Board of Public Works, after working with the BOE and consulting with SEIU Local 721, adopted a policy, screening criterion, and procedures for notifying the Union of our intent to advertise a construction project for bids in certain circumstances. As a general statement, SEIU must be notified of projects that we plan to construct through the bid and award process if the project could be built entirely by City employees. This would generally include employees of the Bureau of Street Services, Bureau of Sanitation, Department of General Services, or Department of Recreation and Parks.
Project Managers are required to follow the notification requirements. In order to assist Project Managers with this task, a new entry screen has been added to the Uniform Project Reporting System (UPRS) labeled “Notification to Union.” Project Managers shall use this entry screen to record whether or not 100 percent of the project’s scope falls into the identified categories. For the vast majority, this will not be the case and all that will be required of the Project Manager will be to write a short comment describing why the work cannot be constructed 100 percent by City Forces. In those cases, this will be the end of the required documentation and no SEIU notification is necessary.
SEIU will be notified whenever construction project scopes fall within the criteria detailed in these guidelines (Attachment 8.1-1) and can be completed entirely by City forces. Project Managers are required to notify SEIU if their projects match the types of projects in the attached guidelines. Notification should begin as early in the project design as feasible to avoid delays. The attached process flowchart (Attachment 8.1- 2) explains the steps to notify the Union. The attached form titled “Construction Project Notification to SEIU Local 721” (Attachment 8.1-3), should be used by the Project Manager for all projects to document the steps outlined in the flowchart and to notify the Union when necessary. Emergency projects and projects with federal funding requiring competitive bidding are exempt from these guidelines. Eventually, notification letters will be generated through UPRS. In the meantime, Project Managers should coordinate any such notifications through the Project Award and Control Division (PAC), who will assist with the process.
Forms for this Procedure can be downloaded from the Bureau’s Forms Library at https://eng.insidela.org/eforms/ (City Staff only). If revisions are made to the attachments, the updated versions will be uploaded to the Project Delivery Manual and the Forms Library. Project Managers should check BOE’s Forms Library for the most current versions of the attachments.
20%, 50% and 90% Design Milestones
The PE is responsible for establishing design milestones on the project schedule. Design milestones serve as checkpoints throughout the Design Phase. These milestones are quite variable depending on the size of the project. For very large projects, the 20% design milestone can be the completion of the Pre-Design Phase. The 50% and 90% design milestones should apply to all projects regardless of size.
The purpose of a design milestone is to set a point in time to measure progress, confirm inter-discipline coordination, clarify goals and endpoints, conduct formal QA/QC reviews, course correct, and document the project status. The PE is responsible for coordinating, scheduling and facilitating all design milestone meetings/reviews, as well as documenting the results.
The design milestones are points in time when the PE must verify consistency among the design and the approved project as described in the Pre-Design Report. There should be no significant change in the design scope unless the change is approved by the Client, Project Manager, and Program Manager and is properly documented. Significant changes in scope past the 50% design completion point should be avoided. Many times, it’s best to consider a significant design change as a separate project when confronted with it late in the Design Phase.
Design milestones are also key points to revisit the project scope and budget, as well as the design approach and relationship of the current project to the selected alternative in the Pre-Design Report. The design should be consistent with the selected alternative from the Pre-Design Report. Significant deviation from the Pre- Design Report may be initiated by the Client or the Program Manager, with approval of the Client. Changes in project scope and approach must be fully documented, properly approved, and budgeted.
Documentation
The PE is responsible for maintaining all documentation throughout the Design Phase. This can be as formal as a project binder and a project engineer checklist or as simple as a project file. Project documentation should include all memos, letters, meeting agendas, meeting notes, calculations, QA/QC checklists, and periodic design template analyses including cost/template and time/template comparisons.
A significant item for documentation is the engineering calculations which support the design. Engineering calculations are as important as the signed and stamped plans and must be properly documented. Final calculations are to be signed and stamped (as appropriate) and included in the project binder or file. Refer to BOE Special Order No. 010-0902 for additional information regarding signature and stamp requirements for engineering calculations.
All communications among the PE, design team, and Client should be accurately documented and included in the project file. Any deviations from the approved Pre-Design Report must be approved by the Client or Program Oversight Committee and fully documented to identify all time and cost impacts.
Cost Estimate and Budget Updates
A Class C construction cost estimate should be available at the conclusion of the Pre-Design Phase and should be a part of the Final Pre-Design Report or Technical Memorandum. Throughout the Design Phase the PE should refine and develop the Class C construction cost estimate to Class B and then Class A status. The Class B estimate will coincide with the 50% design completion milestone. The Class A estimate will coincide with the 90% design completion milestone. The PE must revise the construction cost estimate as necessary to include all approved scope changes and communicate significant cost increases/decreases to the PM.
Because of the time lag between initial budgeting of the Capital Improvement Program and the availability of updated project cost estimates, the PM must update the project budget, as necessary, based on the most current cost estimate. Significant increases in the construction cost estimate must be approved by the Client or Program Oversight Committee and accurately reflected in the overall Capital Improvement Program budget.
Technical Specifications
The development of technical specifications is an integral component of the Design Phase. Technical specification development should begin as early as possible in the Design Phase. A reasonable endpoint goal for completion of the technical specifications is the 90% design milestone. Refer to Procedure 8.2 for additional discussion of technical specifications. Refer to Chapter 10 for a more thorough discussion of project specifications and bid proposals.
Master Schedule Updates and UPRS Review
The PE and/or PM must provide a monthly update of the Design Phase status in the Program Master Schedule. A monthly review and update of the Uniform Project Reporting System (UPRS) budget and schedule status must be conducted. The UPRS must contain accurate and current project information and it’s the PE’s and/or PM’s responsibility to provide these reviews and updates. For critical projects with extreme time and/or budget constraints, the PE/PM should review the UPRS status more frequently. Another QA/QC tool for the PE is to review summary time charging data to ensure that the appropriate design team members are working on the project.
Design Phase Conclusion
The delivery of 100% complete design documents (plans and specifications) and completion of the Ready to Advertise checklist signifies the conclusion of the Design Phase. At this point the PE/PM should have District Engineer/City Engineer signatures in addition to completion of the Ready to Advertise checklist.
RELATED PROCEDURES
Procedure 8.1.2 – Design Development for Recreational Facilities
Procedure 8.1.3 – Design Development for Street and Bridge Projects
Procedure 8.1.4 – Design Development for Sewer and Storm Drain Projects
Procedure 8.1.5 – Design Development for Air/Water Quality and Wastewater Treatment Projects
Links / Attachments
Links
Los Angeles County Department of Public Works – Hydrology and Sedimentation Manuals
City of Los Angeles Municipal Code (Building, Planning, Fire, etc.)
Council File No. 07-0100 – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
Special Order 070-0708, Notification to Unions for Construction Projects
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