SECTION 22. Resident engineers

There shall be assigned to every building project under the supervision of the office a resident engineer. Resident engineers may be hired as permanent employees subject to chapter 31 or as consultants exempt from said chapter 31. No person shall be employed as a resident engineer unless at the time thereof said person shall have had at least 10 years experience in the construction and supervision of construction of buildings, or shall have at degree in engineering, architecture or a field providing equivalent expertise and at least 5 years such experience.

The resident engineer shall represent the commonwealth daily on the site of construction projects and shall be responsible for checking, inspecting and reporting to the project manager on a regular basis both in writing and orally as to events at the construction site and shall send copies of written reports to the designer on a regular basis.

The project manager may delegate to the resident engineer, subject to approval by the director, notice in writing to all parties in interest, and limits otherwise imposed by this chapter, the authority to make decisions regarding plans, specifications, and materials; the authority to represent the project manager at job meetings; and the authority to order minor changes and make equitable adjustments in the contract price.

The resident engineer shall report in writing to the project manager all problems, disputes, complaints or questions from or concerning designers, contractors or other personnel involved in the project.

There shall be assigned to every project under the control and supervision of the office a cost estimator, who shall be responsible for reviewing all project costs. Cost estimators may be hired as permanent employees subject to chapter 31 or as consultants exempt from said chapter 31.

Cost estimators shall have proven ability and experience in construction cost estimating and shall be familiar with various approaches to cost estimating, including but not limited to conceptual and preliminary estimating designed to provide budget and planning guidance in the early stages of a project, labor-cost estimating, fair cost estimating prepared from completed plans and specifications, contractors' bid estimating and definitive or detailed estimating.

The cost estimator, working in cooperation with using agencies requesting projects, shall provide estimates of the costs of proposed projects. The cost estimator shall review all cost projections for studies, programs and designs, as well as contractors' cost estimates. The cost estimator shall review change order estimates, cost and pricing data, payment schedules and progress payment requests, and make recommendations to the project manager at the project manager's directive.

Public agencies other than political subdivisions of the commonwealth that conduct building projects outside the jurisdiction of the division of capital asset management and maintenance as provided in section 4 may request assignment of a project manager, resident engineer or cost estimator employed by the office of project management. Such assignment shall be subject to approval by the commissioner. Any agency making use of the office's staff on a project outside the normal jurisdiction of the office shall reimburse the office for all expenses incurred, including salaries and overhead. The director shall recommend to the commissioner regulations governing fees to be paid by public agencies for use of the office's services on projects outside its normal jurisdiction.