117. The Bond.—The bond called for in the Information and Instructions for Bidders is bound in the pamphlet following the Contract. No uniform practice is followed in the amount of the bond required. It varies from 50 to 100 per cent of the contract price and may be stated as a lump sum before the contract price is known. There is a possibility that the Contractor may fail before he has commenced work and the City may be unable to procure another contractor to take up the work. The City should then be protected by a 100 per cent bond. Such a contingency is remote. The Contractor seldom fails until work is well under way, and other contractors are usually available, although the failure of one contractor tends to increase the bids of other contractors for the same work. In fixing the amount of the bond the judgment of the Engineer is called into play in order that the amount may be as low as possible in fairness to the Contractor, and high enough to protect the interests to the City. By reducing the amount of the bond the expense to the City is also reduced as the City ultimately must pay its cost.

Upon the acceptance of the bond and the execution of the Contract, the Engineer’s duties take him out of the designing office and into the construction field.

CHAPTER XI
CONSTRUCTION

118. Elements.—The principal elements in construction are: labor, materials, tools, and transportation. The lack of or inadequateness of any one of these detracts from the effectiveness of the others. The engineer should assure himself of the completeness of his plans or those of the contractor on each of these points. The disposition of labor and the handling of materials to obtain the largest amount of good with the least expenditure of money and effort are problems which must be solved by the engineer or the contractor during construction.

Work of the Engineer

119. Duties.—The duties of the engineer during construction consist in giving lines and grades; inspecting materials; interpreting the contract, specifications and drawings; making decisions when unexpected conditions are encountered; making estimates of work done; collecting cost data; making progress reports; keeping records; and in guarding the interests of the City.

120. Inspection.—In the inspection of workmanship and materials, the engineer is assisted by a corps of inspectors and assistants who act under his direction. The duties of the inspector are to be present at all times that work is in progress and to act for the engineer in enforcing the terms of the contract, the details of the drawings, and the tests applicable to the workmanship and materials that he is delegated to inspect. He should have a copy of the contract, or that portion of it which pertains to his work, available at all times. He should examine all materials as they are delivered on the job and see that rejected materials are removed at once. An ordinary recourse of some foremen will be to place rejected material to one side until a brief absence of the inspector will present the opportunity for the use of the rejected material. The methods to be followed in the inspection of materials and workmanship should be such as to discover discrepancies between the specifications and the materials delivered or the work done. Other duties of the inspector are: to record the location of house connections or to drive a stake over them for subsequent location by the engineer; to see that plugs are put in the branches left for future house connections; to inspect the workmanship in the making of joints in pipe sewers; to protect the line and grade stakes from displacement; to check the size, depth, and grade of sewers and elevations of special structures, etc.

Dishonest and unscrupulous workmen have many tricks to get by the inspector. These tricks are best learned by experience as no academic list can impress them properly on the memory. The position of the inspector is not always enviable. He must hold the respect of the workmen, of the contractor, and of the engineer. To do this he must not be unreasonable or arbitrary in his decisions, but when a decision is once made he must be firm in following up its enforcement. He must be careful not to give directions whose fulfillment he cannot enforce, nor for which he cannot give adequate reason to his superiors. His integrity must never be questioned. He must not allow himself to become under obligations to the contractor by the acceptance of favors he cannot return except at the expense of his employer, yet at the same time he must not appear priggish by the refusal of all favors or social invitations. In brief he must be friendly without being intimate, independent without being aloof, and firm without being arbitrary.

The engineer must support his inspectors in their decisions or discharge them if he cannot.

121. Interpretation of Contract.—In interpreting the contract, specifications and drawings, the engineer is supposedly an impartial arbiter between the interests of the city and the contractor. His decisions, as to the meaning of the contract, must be founded on his engineering judgment, and should aim to produce the best results without demanding more from the contractor than, in his honest opinion, it is the intention of the contract to demand. However conscientiously he may attempt to remain impartial, and in spite of the honesty of the contractor, his position, as an employee of the city will almost invariably cause him to favor the city in his decisions on close points. The experienced contractor knows this and fixes his bid accordingly, the personality of the engineer sometimes acting as an important factor in the amount of the bid. The situation arises through the character of the contract, and not through a lack of moral integrity on the part of anyone concerned.