Geotechnical News December 2010
47
ASFE NEWS
This Just in at Press Time: Bad News from FHWA.
Do What You Can!
The following memo was issued to
ACEC/Michigan members by the
group’s executive director, Ronald W.
Brenke, P.E. It’s pretty self-explanatory
and Michigan is not the only state
affected. If your firm provides both
geotechnical engineering and CoMET
services, you need to be concerned!
MDOT has received a request
from the Federal Highway Ad-
ministration (FHWA) to imple-
ment new conflict-of-interest poli-
cies for local public agencies and
their use of consultants on feder-
al-aid projects. MDOT has since
requested input from ACEC.
As I read the FHWA letter, they
are requesting that MDOT adopt
a new conflict-of-interest policy
for LOCAL AGENCY projects
where a consultant would be pro-
hibited from performing design
services and construction [mate-
rials] engineering [and testing]
services on the same project. I
believe they are also saying that if
a consultant is hired as a city en-
gineer, they also cannot perform
design/construction engineering
services for the city. This applies
when federal aid is used for any
phase of work.
I have spoken to the FHWA, and
they state that they have no ex-
amples of problems with the cur-
rent practice, but believe having
the same consultant do multiple
phases of work for the same proj-
ect is a conflict of interest and pro-
vides the “opportunity” for fraud
and abuse.
ACEC will be responding to this
request and outlining our oppo-
sition. We have also contacted
the Michigan Municipal League
and the County Road Associa-
tion of Michigan to get their in-
put. This new policy could drasti-
cally change the way consultants
currently work with local gov-
ernment agencies on federally
funded transportation projects. It
could also be costly to local units
of government. If you work for a
local unit of government, I would
encourage you to talk with them
and see if they would be willing
to express their opposition to this
request.
The American Council of Engineer-
ing Companies (ACEC) has written to
FHWAAdministrator Victor Mendez,
former head of the AZ DOT and an
ASU MBA grad, to no avail.
This is really dumb thinking, as far
as we’re concerned, given that CoMET
services provided by other-than the
geotechnical engineer of record are
almost always less effective than oth-
erwise, because the geotechnical en-
gineer of record has a more intimate
understanding of basic project and
geotechnical issues, and because the
geotechnical engineer’s field repre-
sentatives are not at all reluctant about
calling “the boss.” When field repre-
sentatives are employed by someone
else, they seldom if ever call someone
associated with “the competition.” In
brief, this foolish suggestion is aimed
at solving a problem that does not and
never has existed, and will do much
to degrade the quality of engineering
otherwise available to citizens of the
United States. Good news, maybe:
ASCE has reviewed the FHWA stance
and, in essence, says the agency has
applied the conflict-of-interest rules far
more broadly than originally intended
and that, in fact, the do not apply at
all to “construction engineering” (i.e.,
CoMET) services. (Request a copy of
the memo from
.) Now
let’s see what FHWA has to say.
A Civil Engineer! A Civil Engineer!
My Kingdom for a Civil Engineer
“Despite this nation’s rise as a
technology titan with some of the
world’s best engineering minds, India’s
full economic potential is stifled
by potholed roadways, collapsing
bridges, rickety railroads and a power
grid so unreliable that many modern
office buildings run their own diesel
generators to make sure the lights
and computers stay on.” So begins an
article by Vikas Bajaj in
The New York
Times’
August 25, 2010 edition.
So what’s the problem? “It is not
for want of money,” Bajaj wrote. “The
Indian government aims to spend $500
billion on infrastructure by 2012 and
twice that amount in the following
five years.” So what is it the want of?
Skilled civil engineers.
“Civil engineering was once an elite
occupation in India, not only during the
British colonial era of carving roads
and laying train tracks, but also long
after independence as part of the civil
service. These days, though, India’s
best and brightest know there is more
money and prestige in writing software
for foreign customers than in building
roadways for their nation,” Bajaj ex-
plained.
Take the case of Vishal Mandve-
kar, a 26-year-old BSCE grad who
writes software code for a Japanese
automaker. Although he works in a
contemporary office building with all
the right amenities, his 9-mile motor-
