Scenario – Construction Change Order You are a structural engineer for Jim Steele Engineering Co., working on a bridge project. Chuck Damon, the site engineer for Badem Construction, the company installing the bridge, calls you on your cell and asks you to change the section size of Item #4 in the BOM from W14x90 to W14x61. He also asks you to send the revised drawing and BOM to his estimator, Justin Byrne, by the end of the day. 1

What do you do?  Change the drawing and BOM and send them to Justin by the end of the day?  Send an to Chuck: “I won’t do this change. Changing the beam will cause catastrophic failure! People will die!”  Do you phone or meet with Chuck to tell him you need to evaluate the effects of the change? 2

Do you do what you’re asked to do?  Change the drawing and BOM and send them to Justin by the end of day? 3 No. This request requires an evaluation of the effect of the change on load bearing capacity of the bridge. Making the change without checking the effect can be professional negligence.

You observe that the section properties are different – stresses, strains and deflections will be higher 4 What do you do?

Do you Chuck with a worst case scenario?  Send an to Chuck: “I won’t do this change. Changing the beam will cause catastrophic failure! People will die!” NO. This response includes an unsubstantiated claim, and it doesn’t address the possibility that the bridge is not being installed to your company’s specifications. Also, the becomes part of your company’s records and project documentation. 5

Company is a legal record Should not assume is always private – Many corporations monitor – Corporations and universities must comply with subpoena, search warrant, court orders Permanently deleting an is “impossible” – s are saved on servers and backed up Think before you send – Is the appropriate? – Are the contents of the objective and accurate? 6

Do you reason with Chuck and evaluate the change request?  Do you phone or meet with Chuck to tell him you need to evaluate the effects of the change? Best response!  You make the case that the moment of inertia is about 2/3 of the specified section  Then you evaluate the change and document your analysis, then make the change only if the design is acceptable  If Chuck persists, ask your supervisor for help getting the right people in Steele Co. involved with Badem Construction 7