Plans, Specifications, and Inspection Documentation
The contract as a package
The contract is a stack of documents that rarely agree in every detail, so you must know how to read each one and how they rank. The plan set normally contains a cover and index, general notes, typical sections, plan-and-profile sheets, cross sections, and standard detail sheets. Learn stationing (station 12+50 is 1,250 ft from the origin), offsets (measured left or right of the baseline), and elevations given to the hundredth of a foot. The summary of quantities on the plans is informational; the governing quantity is the one measured and paid under the measurement-and-payment article in the specifications.
Specifications and precedence
Standard specifications set quality requirements and pay items; supplemental specifications and special provisions modify them for a specific contract; plans govern lines, grades, and dimensions. Most agencies publish an order of precedence - commonly special provisions, then supplemental specifications, then standard specifications, then plans, then standard drawings. Written figures beat scaled measurements: if a scaled dimension conflicts with a printed number, the printed number governs. Another reliable trap is a pay item measured in tons on the plans but in square yards in the spec; the spec wins.
Documentation
Your daily inspector's report, diary, quantity book, material certifications, and photographs are the record that supports payment and defends against claims. Record weather, crews and equipment, work performed by station, tests taken with results, and any oral direction - then confirm that direction in writing the same day. Change orders, RFIs, submittals, and nonconformance reports all carry dates that matter later.
Rule of thumb: when documents conflict, ask (1) is this a special provision for this contract? (2) is it a quality issue or a dimension issue? (3) is the number printed or scaled? That sequence resolves almost every precedence question.
Worked example: the distance from station 105+35 to station 112+07 is 11,207 − 10,535 = 672 ft, written 6+72.