questions: Have you used digital signatures for inspection reports, contractor submittals, and other paperwork

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1 Research Request Summary This Research Request Summary is a response to a request from a local government agency in Washington State for research and information filed with John Carpita, Public Works Consultant for the Municipal Research and Services Center (MRSC). On occasion, it is necessary to post these requests to appropriate APWA National infonow communities and/or a cross section of Washington State city and county public works officials and special districts to gather sample documents or best practices. John summarizes these responses for the benefit of the inquiring party. As many of these responses are of general interest and, invariably, people who respond want copies of the information, he also posts the responses on the Forum web page of the Washington State American Public Works Association Chapter for the benefit of the greater Washington State public works community. You can John at [email protected] with information requests or suggestions for research of use to the Washington State public works community. If your agency or company has done research or gathered information of general interest, please send it to John for possible posting on this Forum page. Research Request Statement Date: August 2011 that normally requires signatures? Are there issues or pitfalls that come with such use? What sort of record retention issues arise and how have you dealt with them? What is the best means of archiving project files for permanent storage? What is your agency s comfort level with electronic project files? A Jeff Brauns, City of Sammamish, Jeff Brauns [[email protected]] Have you used digital signatures for inspection reports, contractor submittals, and other paperwork that normally requires signatures? Are there issues or pitfalls that come with such use? NO What sort of record retention issues arise and how have you dealt with them? There doesn't seem to be any established records retention schedule other than that published by the State. What is the best means of archiving project files for permanent storage? We utilize Iron Mountain for records archiving. What is your agency s comfort level with electronic project files? Fairly comfortable, however we do not have any standard practices established. Page 1

2 Brian R. Victor, City of Burien, Brian Victor for projects using local funds, as WSDOT and FHWA still require paper copies for most of said information. Some that normally requires signatures? Are there issues or pitfalls that come with such use? In some cases, I have personally used a scanned image of my signatures on letters only. I have also even used an image of my PE stamp (unsigned). Using scanned signatures is not recommended for Daily Inspection Report s, submittal approvals, change orders, contracts, etc. Instead, Adobe recommends usage of several companies out there that can insure valid digital signatures for its PDF s. There are fees associated with these digital keys but they offer the best secure digital validations. Scanned handwritten signatures can be copied and reused maliciously so one has to be careful on how it used. Secured digital signatures are not too easy to use on day-to-day field documentation like DIR s or Field Notes. The advent of tablets like the ipads may change this (although Apple does not recognize some features with Adobe.) In any case, all construction documents would still need to be printed out until state and Federal agencies make the change themselves to switch to a more electronic filing system. Second, agencies may need to instill some sort of policy that acknowledges digital signatures. Just because someone submits a document with a secured digital signature does not mean the other party will accept it. For us, we do not have a policy but should. What sort of record retention issues arise and how have you dealt with them? the hard and electronic filing system should be the same and standardized. Here at Burien, they do not. Our electronic project filing system typically follows the format example below: 1.0 Proposals & Contracts 2.0 Project Forms 3.0 General Project Communications 4.0 Costs & Billings 5.0 Project Management 6.0 Studies & Reports 7.0 Designs 8.0 Bid Phase Activities 9.0 Pre-Construction Phase 10.0 Construction Phase 11.0 Project Closeout However, our hard filing system does not. Consequently, there are times when what gets filed in the hard system may not be the case the electronic system or vice versa. Or even the case where it was thought to be filed in either system, nonetheless, it was forgotten. To deal with this, I am proposing a standardized filing system format for both hard and electronic systems. This can be quite involved and almost begs to bring a specialist who deals in this area on a full-time basis. However, in this economy, that is not an option. What is the best means of archiving project files for permanent storage? hard copies for 3 years, and electronic versions for predetermined length of time (but longer than the 3 years.) What is your agency s comfort level with electronic project files? Right now, the City of Burien does not have a policy with electronic filing systems. We are looking at them on case by case basis. This next big project will be our next real challenge. Page 2

3 Douglas P. D'Hondt, P.E., L.E.G, Kittitas County, for projects using local funds, as WSDOT and FHWA still require paper copies for most of said information. Some that normally requires signatures? Are there issues or pitfalls that come with such use? We don t use digital signatures. What sort of record retention issues arise and how have you dealt with them? We typically save hard copies indefinitely. We have electronically saved and archived electronic files. What is the best means of archiving project files for permanent storage? We currently save everything on a central server with back up. What is your agency s comfort level with electronic project files? Our comfort level is fine. However, hard copies don t crash or require software upgrades. We tend to save both electronic and hard copies. Justin S.E. Rush, Project Manager, City of St. Helens, OR, , Justin Rush [[email protected]] We have been fully digital for almost three years now. There has been some issues with technology and inspection. However we let the inspectors use the write in the rain books for notes but require the Hand held computers with inspection database to be filled out. As for bid items we have implemented a signature book for bid items, which has to be signed within 24-hours of completion of bid item. This prevents missing electronic items and contractor coming back with different quantities. I have done digital documentation for the projects for 5 years and have cut out 3/4 of the paper. For submittal responses we have yet to have an issue with electronic signatures. Contracts, Change Orders and Letters I have signed hardcopies, scanned them for my records and mailed the original. Most of the contractors welcome the reduction in paper and information is passed on quicker via . One of the issues we have run into is the size of data, it is paramount to have a FTP site set up for large data sets to be passed on. If you would like to talk more about going digital please contact me. Fernando G. Bravo, P.E., CFM, Principal Civil Engineer, City of Milpitas, CA, Fernando Bravo [[email protected]] 1. The City of Milpitas (COM) does not use digital signatures. 2. The COM has a retention policy for various documents. 3. Archiving project files best means: COM requirements are record drawings are to be archived in PDF, TIFF and AutoCAD format, and PDF all other project records that need to be retained in accordance with our retention policy. 4. COM encourages maintaining final record files in electronic format consistent with our retention policy and archiving policy. Darcey Strand, City of Issaquah, Darcey Strand [[email protected]] that normally requires signatures? Are there issues or pitfalls that come with such use? We have not used digital signatures for inspection reports because FHWA and WSDOT still require the paper files. I Page 3

4 have the dailies printed out and make the inspectors sign them before they get put in the project file. We do accept contractor submittals as digital but we print out and have the engineers sign off and then I scan them and it back to the contractor. If there are rules that tell me I cannot use an copy with signatures I do not know about them. We still require paper copies of everything because the last time we were audited we got in trouble because I had not printed out copies of my ledger sheets to keep in the paper file even though we had an electronic copy. What sort of record retention issues arise and how have you dealt with them? 1. It s essential to have one person doing the filing for WSDOT or FHWA funded projects. Pam, our Project Coordinator, does a fabulous job of organizing and following their template. She knows which documents go in which order and assures there is nothing missing. Audits go very smooth when you have someone (like Pam) organizing all files consistently. 2. The only dilemma in retaining files both electronically and print is duplication and order of documents. Also, gathering all documents when for a records request can be more of a challenge. 3. Electronic ( /correspondence) document Search - I believe we have improved our electronic filing of project correspondence ( s), by setting up templates for the subject line. Everyone is using the exact same wording in the subject line, consequently a search for documents has been a simpler process. ( i.e Complete Streets contract or 2011 Complete Streets closeout) The search will grab the title of the project, yet the content of correspondence is still listed. 4. Archiving has been a challenge. We are going back through all previously archived projects to archive in accordance with the Regional State Archivist guidelines. When archiving a project in the future, we will pull reports and studies which are permanently retained, to be logged into our library. Project files not permanently retained should be dated with completion date and then the destruct date. What is the best means of archiving project files for permanent storage? 1. The Regional Archivist is strongly urging agencies to go with electronic records management and have a program to offer assistance to agencies starting out. There is a lot of great information at They are still equipped to support agencies with print copy project files, as well as electronic and a combination of both. It would certainly save us space to scan in those archived files and create easier access for our staff when an older document is needed. What is your agency s comfort level with electronic project files? 1. Our city embraces going fully digital, we haven t specifically addressed the project filing, but I believe we would embrace this as well. There have been budget constraints to going paperless. 2. If we were starting out, we would save all city funded projects electronically or print copy but not both. We have duplication on some documents and then something could be missed in one area or the other. Ideally, all electronic would be great. It would mean scanning in a lot of documents that only come in print copy. (Such as materials receipts, etc) I think WSDOT and FHWA have strict rules about how the documents are saved and the way files are organized. 3. We don t use digital signatures for everything, so as far as I know we don t have guidelines setup for digital signatures yet. I can see that might ease contractors rushing in with signed pay estimates, change orders, etc. They could just that signed document. Do we have a policy that addresses that? Page 4

5 John T. Davis, Florida Department of Transportation, John T Davis [[email protected]] The Florida Department of Transportation has been using electronic signature and sealing of design plans for several years now. Their process and requirements can be viewed at: I suspect similar processes could be used for other project files. In our experience, electronic files are much better than hard copy or paper files, in that they take far less space for storage and can be indexed and searched much faster and easier. Of course, as with hard copy files, off-site duplicate files for protection against catastrophic loss is essential. But, with electronic storage, such back-up is much easier and far less expensive. Brad Hofman, Business Process Analyst, Administrative Operations, Snohomish County Public Works, [email protected] Our Department is deploying the ARX/CoSign solution to our PEs and PLSs we expect to have this project finished in 1Q12, with the intent to go to a digital life cycle for our plans. Our scope is limited to sealing and signing plans, specifications and estimates. This project will serve as a pilot and proof of concept, with the expectation that further adoption will be well outside the initial scope. Please see additional comments below. that normally requires signatures? Not yet Are there issues or pitfalls that come with such use? TBD What sort of record retention issues arise and how have you dealt with them? We understand that our records management/retention requirements are the same for electronic records and paper records What is the best means of archiving project files for permanent storage? We are addressing this as part of our COOP (Continuity of Operations Plan) and disaster recovery planning our record drawings (asbuilts) must be retained for the life of the project (road/bridge) plus 3 years; we are currently printing our plans (as-designed and as-bult) on polypropylene with archival ink with an expected storage life in excess of 50 years What is your agency s comfort level with electronic project files? Most of our project files are currently electronic, except for those which require wet signatures digital signatures will take us to the next level Page 5