Importance of Teaching Construction Contract Specifications

Being able to hit the ground running is an asset for any young graduate engineer, and his or her employer. Can academicians do more than they do to prepare the graduate? Is there room for improvement? One area where we have fallen down is by not exposing the student to one of the most important aspects of civil engineering—contracts and specifications. The young engineer is often posted on the job site with a set of plans and specifications and does not have the foggiest notion how to read them or appreciate their importance. They never had any exposure in college! Even though a professor is not a lawyer, and time is limited, he or she can do a lot to impress on the student the importance of these documents. The purpose of this paper is to whet the appetite of the university professor who might be in a position to provide such exposure.