A joint task group has developed a proposed modification to Section 3.1.2 of the American Institute of Steel Construction’s (AISC) Code of Standard Practice. The joint task group is a partnership of the Council of American Structural Engineers (CASE) Guidelines Committee and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Committee on the Code of Standard Practice. These two groups have collaborated for several years now to improve and advance the AISC Code.

This proposal seeks to address, in a direct and workable manner, the practice of delegating connection design work to a licensed engineer working for the steel fabricator. It is currently one of the items being balloted by the AISC Committee on the Code of Standard Practice.

Because the modification to Section 3.1.2 and the associated changes in Section 4.4 are significant, this article offers the proposed wording below. Please review the proposed modifications. Comments are welcome at www.aisc.org.

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Modify Section 3.1.2 to read as follows:

3.1.2. The Owner’s Designated Representative for Design shall indicate one of the following options for each Connection:

(1) The complete Connection design shall be shown in the structural Design Drawings;
(2) In the structural Design Drawings or Specifications, the Connection shall be designated to be selected or completed by an experienced Steel Detailer while preparing the Shop and Erection Drawings, by referring to:

a. Tables or schematic information in the structural Design Drawings;
b. Tables in the AISC Steel Construction Manual; or,
c. Other reference information as approved by the Owner’s Designated Representative for Design; and/or,

(3) In the structural Design Drawings or Specifications, the Connection shall be designated to be designed by a licensed Professional Engineer.

In all of the above options, the approvals process in Section 4.4 shall be followed.

When option (2) or (3) above is specified, the Owner’s Designated Representative for Design shall provide the following information in the structural Design Drawings and Specifications:

(a) Any restrictions on the types of Connections that are permitted;
(b) Data concerning the loads, including shears, moments, axial forces and transfer forces, that are to be resisted by the individual members and their Connections, sufficient to allow the selection, completion or design of the Connection details while preparing the Shop and Erection Drawings;
(c) Whether the data required in (b) is given at the service-load level or the factored-load level; and,
(d) Whether LRFD or ASD is to be used in the selection, completion or design of the Connection details.

Additionally, when option (3) above is specified, the Owner’s Designated Representative for Design shall indicate in the structural Design Drawings and Specifications what substantiating Connection information, if any, is to be provided with the Shop and Erection Drawings to the Owner’s Designated Representative for Design. The licensed Professional Engineer working for the Fabricator shall review the incorporation of the connection designs into the Shop and Erection Drawings. However, this review does not replace the approval process as outlined in Section 4.4.

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Commentary:
There are three cases covered in Section 3.1.2:

(1) When the Owner’s Designated Representative for Design shows the complete design of the Connections in the structural Design Drawings, the following information is included:

(a) All weld types, sizes and lengths;
(b) All bolt sizes, locations, quantities and grades;
(c) All plate and angle sizes, thicknesses and dimensions; and,
(d) All work point locations and related information.

The intent of this approach is that complete information necessary for Connection detailing, fabrication and erection is shown in the structural Design Drawings. Typical details are shown for each connection type, set of geometric parameters and adjacent framing conditions. The Steel Detailer will then be able to transfer this information to the Shop and Erection Drawings, applying it to the individual pieces being detailed.

(2) When the Owner’s Designated Representative for Design allows an experienced Steel Detailer to select or complete Connections, this is commonly done by referring to tables or schematic information in the structural Design Drawings, tables in the AISC Steel Construction Manual, or other reference information approved by the Owner’s Designated Representative for Design, such as journal papers and recognized software output. Tables and schematic information in the structural Design Drawings should provide such information as weld types and sizes, plate thicknesses and quantities of bolts. However, there may be some geometry and dimensional information that the Steel Detailer must develop. The Steel Detailer will then configure the Connections based upon the design loads and other information given in the structural Design Drawings and Specifications.

The intent of this method is that the Steel Detailer will select the Connection materials and configuration from the referenced tables or complete the specific Connection configuration (e.g., dimensions, edge distances and bolt spacing) based upon the Connection details that are shown in the structural Design Drawings. The Steel Detailer must be experienced and familiar with the AISC requirements for Connection configurations, the use of the Connection tables in the AISC Steel Construction Manual, the calculation of dimensions, and the adaptation of typical Connection details to similar situations. Notations of loadings in the structural Design Drawings are only to facilitate selection of the Connections from the referenced tables. It is not the intent that this method be used when the practice of engineering is required.

(3) The revisions in this Section and Section 4.4 have been made to reflect that it is a common practice in several areas of the U.S. to have a licensed Professional Engineer working for the Fabricator design the Connections, and to recognize the information that the Fabricator needs to do the work necessary to complete the Shop and Erection Drawings for approval when Connection design is delegated. To maintain the safety of the public, the Owner’s Designated Representative for Design, who has the knowledge of the structure as a whole, must review and approve the Shop and Erection Drawings, and take such action on substantiating Connection information as he/she deem appropriate.

When, under Section 3.1.2, the Owner’s Designated Representative for Design requires that Connections be designed by a licensed Professional Engineer employed or retained by the Fabricator, this work is incidental to, and part of, the overall means and methods of fabricating and constructing the steel frame. The licensed Professional Engineer performing the Connection design is not providing a peer-review of the Contract Documents.

The Owner’s Designated Representative for Design conducts sufficient review during the approvals process of the Shop and Erection Drawings as specified in Section 4.4 to ensure compliance with the specified criteria and compatibility with the design of the primary structure. The licensed Professional Engineer who performs the design of the Connections for the Fabricator also reviews the incorporation of his/her work into the Shop and Erection Drawings.

One of these cases should be indicated for each Connection in a project. It is acceptable to utilize a combination of these cases for the various Connection types involved in a project. Option (3) is not normally specified for connections that can be selected or completed as noted in Option (2) without practicing engineering.

If there are any restrictions as to the types of Connections to be used, it is required that these limitations be set forth in the structural Design Drawings and Specifications. There are a variety of Connections available in the AISC Steel Construction Manual for a given situation. Preference for a particular type will vary between Fabricators and Erectors. Stating these limitations, if any, in the structural Design Drawings and Specifications will help to avoid repeated changes to the Shop and Erection Drawings due to the selection of a Connection that is not acceptable to the Owner’s Designated Representative for Design, thereby avoiding additional cost and/or delay for the redrawing of the Shop and Erection Drawings.

The structural Design Drawings must indicate the method of design used as LRFD or ASD. In order to conform to the spirit of the AISC Specification, the Connections must be selected using the same method and the corresponding references.

In some cases when the complete Connection design is not shown in the structural Design Drawings, Shop and Erection Drawings may suffice with no additional substantiating Connection information required. In other cases, the substantiating Connection information may take the form of hand calculations or software output. When substantiating Connection information is required, it is recommended that representative samples of that information be agreed upon prior to preparation of Shop and Erection Drawings in order to avoid additional cost and/or delay for the redrawing that might otherwise result.

The Owner’s Designated Representative for Design may require that the substantiating Connection information be signed and sealed. Depending upon jurisdictional requirements, the signing and sealing of the cover letter transmitting the substantiating Connection information may suffice. This signing and sealing indicates that a Professional Engineer performed the work but does not replace the approval process provided in Section 4.4. For these requirements, the Owner’s Designated Representative for Design is bound by the applicable building code and/or licensing laws of the jurisdiction in which the project is located.

Requirements to sign and seal Shop and Erection Drawings are discouraged. Doing so may violate the licensing laws of the jurisdiction because the member designs and configurations are not the work of the licensed Professional Engineer performing the connection design.

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Modify Section 4.4 to read as follows:
4.4. Approval
Except as provided in Section 4.5, the Shop and Erection Drawings shall be submitted to the Owner’s Designated Representatives for Design and Construction for review and approval, along with substantiating Connection information required in Section 3.1.2, if any. These submittals shall be returned to the Fabricator within 14 calendar days.

Approved Shop and Erection Drawings shall be individually annotated by the Owner’s Designated Representatives for Design and Construction as either approved or approved subject to corrections noted. Approved substantiating Connection information is permitted to be grouped for ease of review and approval, and need not be individually annotated on each sheet. When so required, the Fabricator shall subsequently make the corrections noted and furnish corrected submittals to the Owner’s Designated Representative for Design and Construction.

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Commentary:
As used in this Code, the 14-day allotment for the return of submittals is intended to represent the Fabricator’s portal-to-portal time. The intent in this Code is that, in the absence of information to the contrary in the Contract Documents, 14 days may be assumed for the purposes of bidding, contracting and scheduling. A submittal schedule is commonly used to facilitate the approval process.

If a Shop or Erection Drawing is approved subject to corrections noted, the Owner’s Designated Representative for Design may or may not require that it be re-submitted for record purposes following correction. If a Shop or Erection Drawing is not approved, revisions must be made and the drawing resubmitted until approval is achieved.

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4.4.1. Approval of the submittals, approval subject to corrections noted and similar approvals shall constitute the following:

(a) Confirmation that the Fabricator has correctly interpreted the Contract Documents in the preparation of those submittals;
(b) Confirmation that the Owner’s Designated Representative for Design has reviewed and approved the Connection details shown in the submittals and submitted in accordance with Section 3.1.2, if applicable; and,
(c) Release by the Owner’s Designated Representative for Design and Construction for the Fabricator to begin fabrication using the approved submittals.

Such approval shall not relieve the Fabricator of the responsibility for either the accuracy of the detailed dimensions in the Shop and Erection Drawings or the general fit-up of parts that are to be assembled in the field.

The Fabricator shall determine the fabrication schedule that is necessary to meet the requirements of the contract.

Charles J. Carter, P.E., S.E., is vice president and chief structural engineer for the American Institute of Steel Construction. He can be reached at carter@aisc.org.