Specifying for Davis-Bacon

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Author Message Ronald L. Geren, RA, CSI, CCS, CCCA, MAI Senior Member Username: specman Post Number: 268 Registered: 03-2003 Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 01:35 pm:    I have the opportunity to specify a project that involves Federal funds and is, therefore, subject to the Davis-Bacon Act. I've been involved with Davis-Bacon on the agency side, working for the Army National Guard Facilities Management Office, but never on the specifying side. I know the agency is responsible for supplying the wage determinations, and that the FARs dictate specific clauses for the contract, which are typically provided in the General or Supplementary Conditions (or, more specifically, Sections 00 73 43 and 00 73 46). But, what, if anything, needs to be stipulated in the specifications, presumably Division 01? Dave Metzger Senior Member Username: davemetzger Post Number: 164 Registered: 07-2001 Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 03:00 pm:    In work I've done for the federal government (and state governments), this has never been a Division 01 issue. This information has been addressed only in the contract conditions/FAR which are furnished by the contracting agency. John Bunzick, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: bunzick Post Number: 524 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 03:18 pm:    I've done much public work as well, and the Davis Bacon provisions per se do not have any real effect on Division 01. However, as Dave points out, there are a host of federal provisions that each agency will have in their contract conditions, and these go beyond just Davis Bacon: there's Equal Opportunity Employment, Buy American, Non-segregated facilities, etc., etc. Agencies often (usually) have their own general and supplementary conditions. These contract conditions will very likely include lots of stuff (other than wage rates) that Division 01 needs to coordinate with. So, the first thing you need to do is get a copy of those Division 00 documents. In many cases, these are available on the internet, but it can get tricky because district offices of some agencies sometimes have differing interpretations of their FARs. Thus, it's best to get these from the client. Doug Brinley AIA CSI CDT CCS Senior Member Username: dbrinley Post Number: 224 Registered: 12-2002 Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 03:20 pm:    Davis Bacon Act requirements and compliance is always in the agency's Division 0/00 for our projects. Ronald L. Geren, RA, CSI, CCS, CCCA, MAI Senior Member Username: specman Post Number: 269 Registered: 03-2003 Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 03:34 pm:    This project is actually a non-Federal contract, but it is receiving a grant through a Federal agency (I don't know which one at the moment), which I've been told requires the project to comply with the Davis-Bacon provisions. The project manager is meeting with the Owner today, so I should be getting some additional information. But, I'm beginning to see the trend here. It looks like I'll have little to do as far as the specifications go. However, (and depending on the PM's meeting) I may be asked to draft the supplementary conditions. If that's the case, and the Owner has little experience with the DBA, I may be coming back with more questions. Thanks John Bunzick, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: bunzick Post Number: 525 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 05:55 pm:    If the project has federal funds, it's a federal project even if not done by a federal agency. The public work I've done has been like that, mostly FAA-funded projects with the "sponsor" being another non-federal public entity. Usually the agency providing the funding will still expect to see a bunch of requirements, and since they are probably distributing grants on a regular basis, they should have guidelines as to what is needed. If they don't give you much, I would suggest using the AIA A201 SC-1999, Federal Supplementary Conditions of the Contract for Construction. This is designed to work with A201, and I have found it works pretty well. The caveat is the funding agency's particular needs, which may or may not be totally served by this document. However, it does include all the most basic stuff, so you don't have to write SC's from scratch. George A. Everding, AIA, CSI, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: geverding Post Number: 164 Registered: 11-2004 Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 10:19 am:    My experience with Davis-Bacon wage rates deals with housing, both HUD and privately developed with federal funds. I agree that wage rates are a Division 00 issue, and probably are covered in the SC documents. But, you may need or want to address submittal requirements in Division 01 (contractor is required to submit certified payroll reports with each request for payment, or each week for the previous week...) That's because monitoring of compliance is often left up to local housing authority, or even contracted to a consultant, so the specific procedures vary from job to job. Another quirky thing we often encountered. Wage-Rates in the bid documents may be updated by the time the contract is signed. I believe Davis-Bacon says date of contract, not date of bid, determines which version of the wage rates are used. So, we sometimes had to change the contract amount or to issue Change Order No. 1 to adjust for updated wage rates. We had a policy to download up-to-date wage rates just before we published a project manual. Here's the website, in case you don't already have it: http://www.access.gpo.gov/davisbacon/allstates.html Davis Bacon for All States John Bunzick, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: bunzick Post Number: 526 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 03:39 pm:    Even though a listing is usually in the project manual, Davis Bacon rates always apply currently. That is, it doesn't matter when the project was bid or the contract signed, the currently established rate for each classification must be paid. It's up to the contractor to know when the rates change and include that in their pricing. Future increases are usually known for some time in advance. Submission of the wage rate reports can be included in Division 01. I've seen it most commonly as a requirement concurrent with payment applications. My preference has been that these go directly to the Owner--I don't even want to be the conduit between the GC and the Owner. Determining whether the proper rates have been paid is not within the expertise of a designer. Frederick L. Jang New member Username: fred_jang Post Number: 1 Registered: 07-2005 Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 05:34 pm:    Please check with your project's Contracting Officer? Here in GSA, we include two different volumes with our bid documents. The project specifications on one and the FAR clauses and Davis-Bacon Wage Rates on the other. Our A-Es prepare the specifications. The Contracting Officer prepares the FAR clauses and the Davis-Bacon Wage Rates.