Quality Control

Table of contents

  1. Roles and responsibilities
  2. Design review
  3. Spot-check QC
  4. Internal QC
  5. QC Color Coding
  6. Additional references

Quality control (QC) is the final step of the design process before submitting plan sheets to the prime. Depending on the submission stage, you’ll either need to ask for a design review and a spot-check QC or a full internal QC review.

Roles and responsibilities

The following are the roles and responsibilities during the QC process.

Role Responsibility
Originator/ Updater/ Designer ✓ Responsible for design completeness, accuracy, adequacy, and inter-discipline coordination.
✓ Uploads all QC documents to Dropbox.
✓ Cannot rely upon the QC procedure to correct design or calculation deficiencies.
✓ Presents all calculations in a neat and logical manner to facilitate checking.
✓ Reviews the completed plan set to ensure that it satisfies the design intent.
✓ The Originator becomes the Engineer of Record for the design if licensed in the state as a Professional Engineer.
✓ Cannot function as the Checker.
✓ Incorporates all corrections.
Checker ✓ Checks work product of the Originator.
✓ Must be competent and experienced in the type of element being checked.
✓ Cannot function as the Originator.
Back Checker ✓ Review corrections by the Updater (Updater is usually the Originator).
✓ Depending on the team size, the Back Checker may function as the Checker.

Design review

Design reviews are performed prior to Preliminary Design (PD); Final Design (FD); and Plans, Specification, and Estimate (PS&E) submissions.

For the design review, the S&C engineer managing the project acts as Checker. The purpose of the design review is to ensure the final design meets the engineering requirements for the project. The engineer will review the plan sheets and provide comments on the plan sheets either via a pdf file or a Bluebeam session.

Once the engineer has completed their review, the Originator should incorporate the Checker’s feedback into the plan sheets, making updates to the design and quantities as necessary.

Spot-check QC

Spot-check QCs are used prior to PD and FD submissions. The goal of a spot-check QC is to ensure plan sheets are complete and accurate. However, a spot-check QC doesn’t require as in-depth of a review as an internal QC review.

Generally, the Checker is another CAD designer or engineer who isn’t working on the project. The Checker should verify that the elements in the border file look correct on each page, all the BMPs have corresponding callouts, the number of callouts is the same as the listed BMP quantity (i.e., three wattle lines in the quantities have three wattles lines in the plan and three corresponding callouts), each sheet has a key map and scale, etc. Checkers aren’t expected to re-measure stationing and quantities.

Internal QC

Internal QCs are performed prior to PS&E submissions. They’re the most thorough QC process, and the Checker is expected to check all elements on a sheet, including listed BMP stationing and quantity measurements, as well as any elements on the sheet that were referenced in from the Prime’s sheets (match lines, begin/ end construction labels, road alignment labels, and so on).

QC Color Coding

Use the following color-coding system to mark up the Check Print:

  • Yellow highlighter is used by the Checker to check the work of the Originator and indicate that an element is correct.
  • Red is used by the Checker to mark up corrections, changes, and additions.
  • Green highlighter is used by the Updater to indicate that changes to the original document have been made.
  • Blue is used for non-record comments or instructions.
  • Red is used by the Back Checker to indicate agreement with a check (✓) or disagreement with an X next to the Checker’s markups.

Additional references

For more details on S&C’s QC process, see Engineering Reference Docs > Project Forms and Check List > QAQC Guide in the Dropbox folder.