MODEL # 2000-2
SPECIAL INSPECTIONS PROGRAM
FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Jurisdiction Statistics (FY ‘97):

Permits Issued Per Year:

Regulatory Areas:

 

PROBLEM:
Large and/or Complex Construction Projects - Delays

Fairfax County’s Department of Environmental Management (DEM) needed a procedure to reduce the time added to large or complex construction projects by the special inspections requirements of the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (VUSBC).

 

SOLUTION:
3rd Party Inspections Program

DEM established the Special Inspections Program which allows project owners to hire their own 3rd party inspectors to oversee projects that fall under the VUSBC’s special inspections provisions.

 

DESCRIPTION:
The Fairfax County Special Inspections Program (formerly called the Critical Structures Program) is a 3rd Party Inspections Program under which project owners can employ private, licensed engineers and testing laboratories, independent of the contractor, to oversee the construction and structural inspections of large and structurally complex projects required under the special inspections requirements of the VUSBC. This program provides scheduling flexibility and minimizes delays during the construction process, as contractors do not have to wait for County inspectors in order to proceed with each stage of construction. Project owners realize cost savings by retaining the engineering firm they deem most qualified to respond to unforeseen circumstances, abide by the project owner’s construction schedule, and provide special inspection and testing services. The cost of inspection and the testing program is borne directly by the owners of the buildings rather than the County. With the increased level of inspection services provided by a licensed professional, the possibility of structural failure is reduced.

The technical and administrative requirements of the Special Inspections Program to implement these structural special inspection requirements are contained in the document, "Special Inspections: Implementation in Fairfax County/1996 Edition" (available for purchase at a nominal cost of $3) whose purpose is to:

The requirements for special inspections and materials testing contained in the VUSBC and its referenced standards can be described as:

The Statement of Special Inspections (included in the submission materials) is prepared by the registered design professionals (Structural Engineer of Record, or Architect of Record) who designed the project, and is incorporated into building plans submitted to the County with the building permit application. The Statement of Special Inspections details the scope of the special inspections that are required by the building code, and lists the professional engineers and inspection agencies who are prepared to provide those inspection services. After the plans are approved, County staff holds a preconstruction meeting with the owner, contractor, inspection agency, and other parties to discuss the scope of special inspections for the project before the building permit is issued.

Under the Special Inspections Program, following the issuance of a building permit and as construction progresses, County staff reviews and approves fabrication and erection documents, such as concrete mix designs and structural steel shop drawings, following the approval by the Structural Engineer of Record, and also approves concrete form work stripping requests. The results of the 3rd Party inspections are reported to the County, where staff ensures that the work of the private engineers conducting special inspections is in compliance with the building code requirements and Special Inspections Program. At the completion of the project, a final report is submitted by the 3rd party inspection engineers for approval prior to issuance of a certificate of occupancy.

An important aspect of the program is the requirement for County review and approval of shop drawings, which allows close monitoring of construction at an early stage and helps to identify possible construction conflicts, since the review is in addition to and not identical to that of the Structural Engineer.

One such type of shop drawing contains concrete form work, shoring and reshoring designs, and construction cycles for removal of shoring and installation of reshores as a building is erected floor by floor. These shop drawings and construction cycles must be designed by professional engineers. During construction, loads that may be larger than any other loads the building will undergo throughout its life are imposed on a building at its earliest and weakest condition. The County review and approval includes verification of design criteria, cycle times, and other information such as that the proposed construction loads delivered to the building are within the capacity of the building. Similarly, the County reviews and approves requests for stripping of form work and removal of reshores at each stage of construction. These requests are initiated by the 3rd party inspection engineer and include concrete cylinder strength tests, cold weather temperature monitoring, post tensioning tests, and other records. The County review is to substantiate that the form work stripping and reshoring is performed at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner. Premature removal of form work and shoring can result in construction collapses, as occurred in the Baileys Crossroads construction project in the early 1970s. That incident was the impetus for the Special Inspections Program.

On a fast track project with only a footing and foundation permit issued, the review can also be used to judge when a building’s frame might be permitted to be erected while the balance of the building is still undergoing plan review. This condenses the construction schedule with subsequent benefits to the project owner.

RESULTS:
This program and several others were undertaken by DEM’s Division of Inspection Services, making it less expensive to perform an inspection than it did in 1992. A Special Inspections project requires full time inspections and testing, and the engineer performing those inspections needs to be highly trained and qualified. For each project, if the County were to directly provide such services, an engineer would have to be assigned to each and every project. In addition, a materials testing laboratory would be required. During FY ‘97, approximately 100 projects utilized the Special Inspections Program, which would have required 100 County engineers. These costs instead were borne directly by the owners of the construction projects resulting in a cost avoidance of $3,102,000. Avoiding the added cost of separate materials testing laboratory services saves approximately $295,000 annually.

The on-site presence of the 3rd party engineers and inspection company can have unexpected benefits for both the project owner and the County. For example, while the ground work for a high rise building was being excavated, an abandoned sewer line was uncovered that, had it not been discovered and corrective actions taken, would have compromised the structural capacity of the foundations. The inspection company notified the County, coordinated remedial designs with the Geotechnical and Structural Engineers, and oversaw the construction of the revised foundations. With limited County resources, it is possible that this problem would not have been discovered on time, or that the remedial actions would have required additional time.

EVALUATION BY STREAMLINING COMMITTEES:

Advantages

Drawbacks

The Streamlining Committees designated this program as a streamlined model without modification but with note that the adopting jurisdiction should define specific parameters as to where this program will be used.

IMPLEMENTATION:
This program was implemented by administrative action of DEM. Implementation costs were negligible in comparison to other staffing requirements, but the success of the Special Inspections Program depends upon supervision by the staff engineers, the day to day inspections and tests by engineering inspection agencies, and dedication by both the public and private sectors.

The annual cost of the Special Inspections Program is $576,000, consisting of salaries for seven inspections engineers, a secretary, and a registered professional engineer as a supervisor for the section; and vehicles for each engineer to perform inspections. Printing costs are recovered by selling materials at cost. In addition, staff performs all other commercial building inspections for all projects in the County. To have a separate staff of six full time inspectors to perform this work would have cost the County $494,700.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR ASSISTANCE IN CONSIDERING THE USE OF THIS MODEL, PLEASE CONTACT:

Zofia A. Zager
Director, Division of Inspection Services
12055 Government Center Parkway
Fairfax, VA 22035
Phone: (703) 324-1980
FAX: (703) 324-3908
Email: szager@co.fairfax.va.us 

Or NCSBCS Staff:
Carolyn Fitch
Regulatory Specialist
National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards
505 Huntmar Park Drive, Suite 210
Herndon, VA 20170
Phone: (703) 481-2038
FAX: (703) 481-3596
Email: cfitch@ncsbcs.org
Website: www.ncsbcs.org