Armenia Engineer Attestation cheat sheet

Legal hierarchy: Constitution → RA laws (including the Urban Development Law) → government decrees → ministerial orders → construction norms (SNiP / RA SN); a lower act contradicting a higher one has no force.

The Urban Development Law governs territorial planning, zoning, design, permitting, construction and state supervision; separate laws cover land use, environmental impact and licensing.

Project participants: investor/developer, designer, contractor, technical supervisor (client's representative), author's supervisor and the state or local self-government control body.

Design is produced in stages: pre-design feasibility, preliminary design (նախագիծ) and working documentation; the required depth of each stage depends on object complexity.

Construction is lawful only on a cadastral plot whose designated use matches the object; urban planning conditions fix permitted density, height and setbacks.

Urban planning documentation hierarchy: territorial plan → general (master) plan of the settlement → zoning plan → detailed plot plan.

Objects are classified by function, complexity and risk; the class determines whether state expert review, a building permit and intensified supervision are required.

Unauthorised (self-built) objects are legalised through an administrative or court procedure once compliance with planning, fire and seismic requirements is proven.

A building permit (շինարարության թույլտվություն) is obtained before any excavation or construction; it is issued by the authorised urban development body or the local self-government.

Permit application package: title documents for the plot, urban planning conditions, design documentation with the state expert conclusion, and proof of fee payment.

Grounds for refusal: incomplete documents, mismatch with the permitted use or zoning, or a negative state expert conclusion.

A permit has a limited validity period; works must start within it, and any material design change (footprint, height, structural scheme) requires re-issue.

Operation of a completed object is allowed only after the acceptance commission issues a commissioning certificate confirming conformity with the approved design.

Design, engineering survey and construction-installation activity are licensable; the licence is granted by the authorised ministry on evidence of qualified staff, equipment and quality control.

Licensed entities appear in a public register; suspension or revocation follows repeated violation of norms or of licence conditions.

Permits, licences and commissioning certificates are state services with statutory processing deadlines and published fee tariffs.

The Law on Technical Regulation separates mandatory technical regulations (safety, health, environment) from voluntary standards.

A technical regulation is adopted by law or government decree and may reference standards; once a standard is cited, its referenced clauses become binding.

National standards carry the designation AST and are administered by SARM, the national body for standards, metrology and conformity assessment.

Conformity is demonstrated by declaration (self-assessment with test evidence) or by certification through an accredited body, depending on the risk level.

Armenia has been an EAEU member since 2015, so EAEU technical regulations (TR CU / TR EAEU) prevail for products in their scope, with mutual recognition of test reports.

Accreditation of laboratories and certification bodies is a function separate from standardisation; only accredited test reports are accepted for mandatory conformity assessment.

Measuring instruments used in construction control undergo periodic verification, giving traceability to national measurement standards.

Design, test and acceptance documentation submitted to authorities must be in Armenian or accompanied by a certified translation.

Design uses the limit-state method: ultimate states (strength, stability, fatigue) and serviceability states (deflection, cracking, vibration) are checked separately.

Design load = characteristic load × partial factor γf: dead load 1.05–1.1, imposed floor load 1.2, wind 1.4, snow 1.4 in the fundamental combination.

Where several variable actions act together, combination factors ψ reduce the accompanying ones; snow is commonly taken with ψ = 0.5 in lowland zones.

Modular coordination uses the basic module M = 100 mm and the enlarged module 3M = 300 mm for planning grids and component sizes.

Typical deflection limits: floor slabs span/250, roof elements span/200, cantilevers span/150, evaluated under the characteristic combination.

Fire resistance is expressed as REI ratings (15–120 min); the required rating fixes minimum section size, concrete cover and protection thickness.

Snow and wind loads are taken from the RA climatic zoning maps; mountain regions carry substantially higher snow loads than the Ararat valley.

Norm documents separate mandatory (safety) provisions from recommended (good practice) provisions; only the mandatory parts are enforced by supervision.

Armenia lies in the Alpine–Himalayan seismic belt; design intensity comes from RA seismic zoning maps in MSK-64 scale points (7, 8 or 9), adjusted for soil category.

Equivalent static base shear: V = K1·K2·S·W, distributed over the height in proportion to storey weight W_i multiplied by height h_i.

Regularity is required: symmetric plan layout, shear walls distributed on the perimeter, no soft or weak storey, torsional eccentricity within code limits.

Seismic joints divide the building into regular blocks; width is at least the sum of adjacent computed lateral displacements plus a margin, and no rigid element may bridge the joint.

Ductile detailing: confinement spacing in plastic-hinge zones ≤ min(8·db, 100 mm); strong-column/weak-beam capacity check; staggered lap splices.

Behaviour factor q reduces the elastic spectrum: about 4–5 for ductile RC frames, 3–4 for wall systems, 2–3 for infilled frames, 1.5–2 for masonry.

Masonry buildings in high-seismicity zones require reinforced seismic belts at floor and roof levels, reinforced lintels and storey-height limits.

Foundations are tied by continuous strip beams or a raft; piles are checked for kinematic effects and for differential displacement between blocks.

Design strengths: fcd = αcc·fck/γc with γc = 1.5; fyd = fyk/γs with γs = 1.15.

Beam longitudinal steel: ρ ≥ max(0.26·fctm/fyk, 0.0013) and ρ ≤ 0.04 at lap zones; shear reinforcement by the truss or strut-and-tie model.

Column reinforcement 0.10·NEd/fyd ≤ As ≤ 0.04·Ac, at least four bars, minimum diameter 12 mm, link spacing ≤ min(12·db, least section dimension).

Steelwork partial factors: γM0 = 1.0 for cross-section resistance, γM1 = 1.0 for member stability, γM2 = 1.25 for net sections and connections.

Footing bearing capacity: qu = c′Nc + q′Nq + 0.5γ′BNγ with Nq = e^(π·tanφ′)·tan²(45° + φ′/2); designed with partial factors or a global factor near 3.

Settlement acceptance: total settlement typically limited to 25–50 mm, differential tilt to about 1/500 between adjacent columns.

Masonry walls are checked for slenderness λ = h/t (limits around 12–15 for load-bearing walls) and for load eccentricity.

Rule-of-thumb slab depth: h ≈ L/25–30 for simply supported one-way slabs, L/30–35 for continuous slabs; flat slabs require punching shear checks at columns.

Concrete class (e.g. C20/25) denotes characteristic cylinder strength 20 MPa and cube strength 25 MPa at 28 days; 150 mm cubes are the standard specimens.

Acceptance sampling: one set of at least three cubes per 50–100 m³ placed, plus a set for each element cast from a separate mix.

Workability is checked by the slump test; the measured slump must stay within the specified target ± 30 mm, otherwise the batch is rejected.

Durability: w/c ≤ 0.50 and cement content ≥ 280 kg/m³ for normally exposed reinforced concrete; cover fixed by exposure class and fire rating.

Curing lasts at least 7 days (3 days for rapid-hardening cement) with surfaces kept moist; cold-weather concreting requires protection until 50% design strength.

Formwork and props are removed at 70% of design strength for slabs and beams of span ≤ 6 m, and 85–100% for longer spans and cantilevers.

Backfill is placed in layers ≤ 300 mm and compacted to a coefficient of at least 0.95 (0.98 under roads and floors), confirmed by field density tests.

Reinforcement is tested per batch (up to 60 t) for yield strength, tensile strength and elongation; welded joints need separate tensile and bend tests.

Water supply: minimum pressure at the most unfavourable fixture is about 0.05–0.1 MPa; design velocities 0.6–1.5 m/s in service pipes limit noise and head loss.

Gravity sewers: minimum slopes about 0.02 for DN100 and 0.008 for DN150, maximum filling ratio 0.6–0.8, self-cleansing velocity not below 0.7 m/s.

Every drainage stack serving several fixtures is ventilated above the roof to protect trap seals; a separate vent stack is required where the stack serves many fixtures.

Ventilation: dwellings need 20–30 m³/h of outdoor air per person; bathrooms and kitchens have local exhaust (about 25–60 m³/h per fixture) discharging to the roof.

Electrical installations use TN-S earthing with main equipotential bonding; 30 mA residual current devices protect socket circuits and wet rooms.

Earth resistance at the main earthing terminal is typically required to be ≤ 4 Ω, or ≤ 10 Ω where only protective earthing of the supply is provided.

Internal gas pipes are laid in ventilated shafts, never in lift shafts or electrical ducts; rooms with gas appliances need permanent ventilation openings.

Gas pipelines are strength-tested at 1.5× working pressure and tightness-tested at working pressure before service, with signed records.

Estimated cost structure: direct costs (materials, labour, machine time) + overhead + estimated profit + value added tax, which in Armenia is 20%.

Unit price = Σ(resource quantity × current price) + overhead percentage + profit percentage; resource quantities come from element-level norms per unit of work.

Estimating methods: resource method (current prices), resource-index method, base-index method and analogy with a completed object.

Contract price types: fixed lump sum, adjustable with indexation, and unit-rate measured contracts; the choice allocates inflation risk between client and contractor.

A contingency reserve of 3–10% of base cost is included in the summary estimate and increased for technically complex or seismically demanding objects.

Winter and high-altitude coefficients are applied to labour and machine costs where work is executed under those conditions.

Estimate documentation set: bill of quantities, unit-price estimates, object estimate, summary estimate and consolidated cost statement.

Completed work is certified monthly against quantities measured on site; the certified amount feeds the cost report and earned-value analysis.

Three distinct control roles: state construction supervision (legality and safety), technical supervision by the client (quality, quantity, schedule) and author's supervision by the designer (conformity with design).

Concealed work - reinforcement, embedded pipes, waterproofing, subgrade - is inspected and recorded in a hidden works act before covering; otherwise it must be opened up.

Executive documentation at completion: as-built drawings, test reports, concrete and weld certificates, general and special works journals, hidden works acts.

Work at height begins at 1.8 m; guardrails 1.1 m high with a mid-rail and toe board, or personal fall-arrest systems, are then mandatory.

Trenches deeper than 1.5 m in unsupported soil require shoring or safe slopes, with ladders placed so no worker travels more than about 10 m to an exit.

Crane work requires a certified operator and signalman, a defined hazardous zone, tested lifting gear, and no passage of loads over people or live areas.

Site electrical safety: temporary earthing, residual current devices on distribution boards, and 42 V or 12 V supply for portable lamps in wet or confined spaces.

Progress control uses critical-path scheduling and earned value: CPI = EV/AC and SPI = EV/PV; values below 1.0 indicate cost overrun or delay.