Materials

General
Materials used in a LG construction project must be clearly defined in the PS&E. Plans and specifications need to describe the types, locations and construction requirements for materials in detail to facilitate the construction, the contract control and the estimation of construction costs of the project. The estimate must reflect the anticipated cost of the project in sufficient detail to provide an initial prediction of the financial obligations to be incurred by the LG, TxDOT or FHWA and to permit an effective review and comparison of the bids received.
Federal Requirements
  1. 23 CFR §630.205
    – Requires the plans and specifications to describe the construction requirements for materials in sufficient detail to facilitate construction.
  2. 23 CFR Part 636 Subpart B
    – Requires solicitations for design-build projects to describe evaluation factors, which may include particular material quality requirements or design performance criteria (i.e., pavement design life).
  3. 23 CFR Part 637 Subpart B
    – Describes a program to determine specification compliance for materials incorporated into the project. See the project requirement “Quality Assurance Program” in
    Chapter 9 – Construction
    for more details.
  4. 23 CFR §200.216
    and
    23 CFR §200.471
    - Describes the prohibition of incorporating services or systems that are produced by named manufacturers, or services or systems that contain components produced by named manufacturers.
State Requirements
  1. Texas Local Government Code §262.025
    – Requires a notice for receipt of competitive bids must include specifications describing the item to be purchased. This applies to counties.
  2. Texas Local Government Code §271.025
    – Requires a governmental entity advertising for competitive bids must include information describing the work.
  3. Texas Government Code §2269.058
    – Requires the LG to provide or contract for material engineering, testing and verification testing for design-build projects that is independent from the design-build firm.
  4. 43 TAC §26.33(g)(1)
    – Requires specifications for projects connecting to a state highway administered by a RMA must conform to TxDOT standard specifications.
  5. 43 TAC §27.56(c)(3)(A)
    – Requires specifications for projects administered by a RTA must conform to TxDOT standard specifications as a condition of state fund participation.
  6. Texas Transportation Code §221.003(d)
    – Prohibits a county commissioner’s court from making improvements to the state highway system until the plans and specifications have been approved by TxDOT.
  7. Texas Transportation Code §366.185
    – Requires contracts by RTAs must be procured by a competitive bid procedure.
  8. Texas Transportation Code §370.306
    – Requires a RMA using a comprehensive development agreement for procurement to publish the criteria used to evaluate proposals. The criteria may include materials requirements.
Required Practices
In general, the LG must adopt TxDOT’s standard specifications for materials or obtain TxDOT approval of alternate specifications. The
LGPM Guide
provides more detailed required practices for the LG and TxDOT.