Delegated Design and Deferred Submittals

The seismic paragraph in the electrical section said equipment anchorage shall be designed by a professional engineer licensed in the project's state, with sealed calculations submitted for review. You read it as the electrician's problem. Then the engineer's review of your panel submittal comes back: provide sealed anchorage calculations for the floor-mounted control panels. You don't have an engineer on staff, the structural firm you call is booked for three weeks, and the panels can't ship until the review clears. That paragraph was a design contract, and it was yours.

This article covers what delegated design is, how a deferred submittal differs from it, where each one shows up on a controls job, and what to price and submit when you find one.

What delegated design means

Normally the engineer of record designs and the contractor builds. Delegated design flips that for one piece of the work: the design team writes the performance and design criteria, and the contractor provides the design that meets them. The standard general conditions address this directly. When the contract requires the contractor to provide professional design services, the owner's design team specifies the criteria the design must satisfy, and the contractor's design professional signs and seals the result.

Three things mark a delegated design requirement in a spec:

• Performance criteria instead of a design. Loads, ratings, ranges, outcomes. "Withstand the seismic forces required by the building code for this site" rather than a detail showing the anchors.
• A licensed professional. The design must be prepared by an engineer licensed in the project's jurisdiction, who seals the drawings and calculations.
• A certification submittal. Sealed calculations, sealed drawings, and often a signed statement that the design meets the stated criteria.

The review changes character too. The engineer of record typically reviews a delegated design for conformance with the criteria and the design intent. They do not check your engineer's math. Your engineer's seal is what stands behind the numbers, and their professional liability is what backs it.

Look for delegated design language in the technical section's submittals and quality assurance articles, and in Division 01. Some books gather the rules in 01 33 00, others in the quality requirements section. The procedure side of 01 33 00 is covered in reading 01 33 00.

What a deferred submittal is

Delegated design is a contract idea: who does the design. A deferred submittal is a building code idea: when the building official sees it.

Under the model building code, the design professional in responsible charge can list portions of the design that will not be submitted with the permit application. Those portions become deferred submittals. The listed items are documents the contractor will prepare later, submitted first to the design professional in responsible charge, who reviews them and forwards them to the building official with a note that they conform to the design. The work they cover can't be installed until the building official approves them.

So a deferred submittal has two reviewers, the engineer of record and the building department, in that order. The building department's turnaround is not in your spec and not in anyone's control. Check your jurisdiction and add it to the schedule.

The two ideas often overlap. Fire sprinklers, seismic bracing, and some smoke control work are commonly both: delegated to a contractor's engineer and deferred to the building official. Look for a list of deferred submittals on the cover sheet or general notes of the drawings. That list is where the engineer of record tells the building department what is coming later, and it tells you too.

Where integrators meet them

Delegated design shows up on controls jobs more often than integrators expect.

Seismic anchorage of panels and equipment. In higher seismic design categories, the building code requires nonstructural components, including electrical and control equipment, to be anchored for seismic forces. Specs often handle this in a vibration and seismic controls section, commonly 26 05 48 for electrical and 23 05 48 for mechanical, which may require sealed anchorage calculations for floor-mounted and wall-mounted equipment. A tall freestanding control panel is exactly the kind of equipment those sections mean. Some specs also accept or require manufacturer seismic certification. Read which one yours asks for.

Control system design to a performance spec. On design-build controls work, the spec describes what the system must do and leaves the architecture to you: controller selection, network design, points, sequences. That is delegated design in substance even when nobody calls it that. Most controls performance specs don't require a seal, but some do, so check. Either way, what you owe is a complete design submittal, as covered in the sequence of operations.

Smoke control. Where the building automation system performs smoke control, the design may be delegated, deferred, or both, and the fire code and the spec may require listed equipment for the smoke control function. Read the fire protection sections and the drawing notes together, and ask early if the boundary between the fire alarm contractor and you is unclear.

Supports and stands. Instrument stands, panel racks, outdoor enclosures on structural supports, and heavy wall-mounted panels can fall under a general requirement that contractor-designed supports be engineered. Look for it in the electrical and mechanical common work sections.

Studies. Some specs ask the contractor for engineering studies with a seal, such as power system studies. They aren't delegated design in the strict sense, but they price and schedule the same way: an outside engineer, a fee, and a review.

What to price

A delegated design paragraph is a professional services subcontract hiding inside a construction spec. At bid, carry:

• The engineer's fee. A licensed engineer in the project's jurisdiction, for each delegated item. Get a quote; it isn't a line you can guess.
• Site information. Your engineer may need structural drawings, slab details, or a site visit to design anchorage.
• Insurance. Some specs require the delegated design engineer to carry professional liability insurance at a stated limit. Check that your engineer does.
• Materials the design adds. Heavier anchors, bracing, a different panel base, reinforced enclosures.
• Inspection. Post-installed anchors often need special inspection under the code. Find out who pays for it.
• Schedule. Engineer turnaround, the engineer of record's review, and for a deferred submittal the building official's review. All of it sits ahead of shipping or installing.

If the delegated scope is unclear, for example the seismic section says "equipment" without saying whose, write your assumption into the bid or send an RFI before bid. The judgment is in submittal vs RFI.

What to submit

A delegated design submittal should make the reviewer's job a checklist. A typical package, built for seismic anchorage of control panels:

DELEGATED DESIGN SUBMITTAL
Seismic anchorage, control panels CP-1 through CP-4
Section 26 05 48, delegated design per Part 1

1  Certification letter, signed and sealed by the delegated
   engineer: design meets the criteria in the section
2  Design criteria: code edition, seismic design category,
   component factors used, as stated in the contract
   documents or by the engineer of record
3  Calculations, sealed: one set per panel type
4  Anchorage details, sealed: anchor type, size, embedment,
   edge distance, base plate or sill details
5  Anchor product data with its evaluation report
6  Panel weights and center of gravity, from the panel shop
7  Special inspection requirements, if any

Item 6 is the one integrators forget. The engineer can't design anchorage without the panel's weight and center of gravity, and those come from your panel drawings. Send them early, and send them again if the panel changes.

Submit the delegated design as its own package rather than buried inside the panel drawings. It has a different reviewer path, it may go to the building department, and on a deferred submittal it gates installation, not just fabrication. Keep it on its own row in the log so its status is visible on its own.

How Submittal Kit handles this

A delegated design paragraph read late turns into a hunt for an engineer with the panels waiting to ship. In Submittal Kit, when you upload the spec book and claim your sections, each one is read for what it requires you to submit, with every demand quoted beside its article reference, so the sealed calculations a seismic section asks for appear as a line to answer at the start of the job. Answer it with Create and it becomes its own submittal. Set its type to Design Data in the settings drawer if it isn't already, and configure its sections so the calculations land in a Studies section, compiled in the order you set and tracked on the Submittal Log as its own row.

Disclosure: I build Submittal Kit. The pricing and submittal list above hold whatever tool you use.