Why the record hangs off the element
Civil work is built as things. A precast pit, an in-situ pit, a pipe, an endwall, foundations. Each one is set out, built and accepted on its own, and when one is wrong it is that one that gets held.
Layers go through the ITP. A layer can be defined with its own ITRs, which gives greater clarity to every result and test than holding several of them under one lot does.
The identifier is on the drawing before any software is involved, and everything captured against the element is owned by it. Work can still be claimed in lots where the contract asks for that. The record stays on the element.
A hold point is a point you nominate on the ITP, not a fixed idea the software brought with it. Work does not move past one until it is signed, and the register shows which are open and which were bypassed.
What gets recorded against the element
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ITP and ITRsA prebuilt ITP to start from, with the required ITRs modified to suit the project. Any other ITR is built in the form builder or mapped from the form you already use. The Client's requirements or your own QMP set what has to be inspected, not the software.
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Layers in the ITPA layer is defined in the ITP with its own ITRs. Every result and every test attaches to the layer it was taken on, which is where the clarity comes from.
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Hold accountabilityA bypassed hold point cannot be backdated. If work went past a hold without its sign-off, the record says so and says when. On paper, in a spreadsheet or in a generic checklist module, the date is a field somebody types.
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Pour recordFor concrete elements, a digital pour record behind the work: what was delivered, what was tested, and the reconciliation between the two. One pour covers several elements and attaches to each of them.
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Redline mark-upsAlign your drawing and upload a DXF. The redline mark-ups come out of it.
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Defects and NCRsA defect is raised from the field, triaged immediately in the admin portal, and added to a live-link job pack. The rework and the retest sit against the same element, under the same non-conformance.
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Conformance recordAn element's conformance record comes out of what is already held against it, and each accepted record lands in the handover set as it is signed.
One row per element
| Element | Type | Chainage | Record | Hold | ITRs | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PIT-0142 | Precast pit | 1240 | PR-0318 | Signed | 7 of 7 | Conformed |
| PIT-0143 | In-situ pit | 1355 | PR-0318 | Bypassed 11 Jun | 5 of 7 | NCR open |
| PIPE-0461 | Pipe run | 1240 to 1355 | TR-0184 | Signed | 6 of 6 | Conformed |
| EW-0088 | Endwall | 1355 | PR-0321 | Signed | 6 of 6 | Open |
| FND-0207 | Foundations | 1410 | PR-0321 | Signed | 8 of 8 | Open |
| PIT-0144 | Precast pit | 1480 | Not placed | Open | 0 of 7 | At hold point |
What the programme view cannot answer
Your project management platform has a task called drainage. It has a start, a finish, a percent complete and a crew against it. For a programme that is the right level of detail. Someone has to know whether the job is tracking, and a bar on a chart answers that.
It is the wrong level for the superintendent's question, which is never about drainage. It is about PIT-0143. Which results came back and what they said. Whether its hold was signed, and by whom. Why it is still open and what closes it. The conformance record for that element has to be produced out of those records, and a percentage does not contain them.
None of this is a criticism of the platform. It keeps the programme, and the programme moves on once the trench is closed. What was covered cannot be re-inspected, and the element's own record is the only thing that outlives the backfill.
With the element as the unit
- PIT-0143's failed result, the non-conformance and the retest
- That its hold was bypassed, and the day it happened
- Which of a layer's ITRs are signed, held against that layer
- The conformance record for an element, out of its own records
- Every element still holding up the work in front of it
With the task as the unit
- "Drainage, 68% complete"
- An element register in a spreadsheet beside the platform
- Laboratory certificates filed by date, not by element
- A hold signed off last Tuesday, typed in this morning
- Redlines marked up by hand on a printed drawing
The handover set the contract already asked for
A live handover set is not a nice-to-have. Most contracts of any size already require the conformance record to be built up as the work proceeds, rather than assembled once the work is done. Many do not work that way. The records exist, in folders, on phones, in the laboratory's reports, and the last month of the job goes on collecting them. FOC Capture tracks every record against its element and its tags from the beginning, so what you hand over is comprehensive rather than reassembled. It is added to the set as it is signed, and the tool compiles the Manufacturer's Data Report the same way where the contract asks for one. Either way it takes that work off the end of the job.
The same requirements expect a record to still be findable long afterwards, by someone who was not there when it was made. The ISO 19650 container convention was written to answer that, by making the name itself say what the record is. FOC Capture names the records it generates, built from the job data rather than typed: the project, the document type, the author and the revision are all in the name. It does not rename anything you bring. Drawings already numbered to the client's scheme keep those numbers: confirm one and the as-built honours it. The identity never changes once it is assigned. Only the status and revision move, from work in progress through sign-off to the locked as-constructed record. The client's information manager gets names their system recognises on sight.
Container codes this work uses
ERW Earthworks. The system code for excavation, fill and subgradeDRN Drainage, for pits, pipes and endwallsPAV Pavement, where the element is a pavement layerCON Concrete works, where the record is about the pour itselfIT The element's inspection and test recordPR The digital pour record behind a concrete elementSV Survey, set-out and level records against the elementNC A non-conformance raised against an elementAB The as-built record at handover