Section 4: Use of the Consultant Pool
Consultant firms who are pre-certified to perform bridge inspections in Texas are available to the districts. The list of certified firms is updated by the Bridge Inspection Branch every two years. The necessary procedures that must be followed by the districts to utilize these consultants is described below.
Anchor: #i1003104Request for Consultant Inspection
The district must initially provide the following three items to the Bridge Inspection Branch of the Bridge Division with a lead time of at least two to three months:
- A request in writing
- An estimate of the total numbers of bridges to be inspected
- An identification of the bridges as being on- and/or off-system
Work Authorization Issuance
The Bridge Inspection Branch of the Bridge Division will send to the district a blank Work Authorization along with a fee schedule for the recommended consulting firm who has been contacted. The district then proceeds with the following:
- Complete the Work Authorization and fee schedule.
- Include description of where the bridge inspections will take place (multiple counties may be included in the same Work Authorization).
- Complete the fee schedule with the number of bridges to be inspected by type.
- Include the total dollar amount on the Work Authorization.
- Contact the consultant firm and agrees to a termination date for the completion of the inspections, which is entered on the Work Authorization.
- Send the Work Authorization to the consultant firm for signature.
- Coordinate the signed Work Authorization agreement with the Bridge Inspection Branch of the Bridge Division.
The Bridge Division will execute the Work Authorization and notify the district and the consulting firm. The consultant may begin bridge inspections upon execution of the Work Authorization.
Anchor: #i1003184Managing Consultant Bridge Inspections
To ensure that bridge inspections are being performed in a competent and timely fashion, the Bridge Inspection Branch and the district will perform oversight of the work by following these steps:
- Verify the consultant’s bridge inspection Project Engineer and the individual Team Leaders against the list provided by the Bridge Inspection Branch of the Bridge Division.
- Periodically visit the consultant’s inspection teams in the field to verify team composition and to observe actual inspections.
- When completed inspections are submitted by the consultant, the District Bridge Inspection Coordinator should review at least 10 percent of the office work and 7 percent of the field work.
- When invoices are submitted to the district by the consultant, they should be reviewed and submitted to the Finance Division as soon as possible (TxDOT has a maximum of 30 days to process an invoice from the date it is received to avoid payment of interest).
- The district should monitor the amount of completed consultant bridge inspections to ensure that additional structures that might be added as the work progresses will have sufficient funds in the Work Authorization.
- If additional funds or time is needed to complete the Work Authorization, a request for a Supplemental Agreement must be made to the Bridge Inspection Branch of the Bridge Division at least 2 weeks before the termination of the initial Work Authorization.
Completion of Work Authorization
When a consultant's work is 75 percent complete, the district should notify the Bridge Inspection Branch so that the consultant may be returned to the consultant pool. When the bridge inspections covered by the Work Authorization are finished, the district should complete an evaluation form provided by the Bridge Inspection Branch. This aids in ensuring the overall quality of the work provided by the consultant, and also aids in the consultant pool selection for the next two-year cycle.