FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 10, 2024
Contact: Katie LaPotin, Executive/Marketing Director
(571) 396-5495
EJCDC® Announces Release of EJCDC® E-564, Engineer – Geotechnical Subconsultant Agreement, 2025 Edition
EJCDC is pleased to present EJCDC® E-564, Agreement Between Engineer and Geotechnical Subconsultant for Professional Services, 2025 Edition.
EJCDC® E-564, Agreement between Engineer and Geotechnical Subconsultant for Professional Services, is intended to be used by an engineering firm (“Engineer”) to delegate (subcontract) the geotechnical portion of its contractual obligations under a prime agreement with a Project owner to a geotechnical engineer or geotechnical engineering firm (“Geotechnical Subconsultant”). The document is best suited to delegation in which the prime agreement between Engineer and Owner is based on EJCDC® E-500, Agreement between Owner and Engineer for Professional Services, or on one of the other EJCDC Owner-Engineer agreement forms, but E-564 may also be used when the prime agreement is not an EJCDC-based document.
EJCDC® E-564, Agreement Between Engineer and Geotechnical Subconsultant for Professional Services, 2025 Edition is a comprehensive update of the standard EJCDC professional services subagreement for geotechnical services. The document has been substantially reorganized for consistency with EJCDC’s other professional services agreements and has been updated to include additional practice content and user guidance. E-564 2025 is coordinated with EJCDC® E-500, Agreement Between Owner and Engineer for Professional Services, both in terms of substantive content and structure/organization. To aid the Engineer in managing its subconsultant team and minimize conflicts among the Engineer’s subagreements, E-564 2025 also closely follows EJCDC® E-570, Agreement Between Engineer and Subconsultant for Professional Services, 2020 Edition.
A new Main Agreement Article 9 “Special Geotechnical Provisions” has been created in E-564 to help users more easily address general agreement matters and terms that are unique and specific to the Geotechnical Subconsultant – Engineer relationship. The “Special Geotechnical Provisions” identifies and modifies the Engineer’s standard subconsultant agreement clauses (from E-570) to apply specifically to the Geotechnical Subconsultant. Article 9 also can include certain key technical requirements to assure those matters are covered when the parties are using a custom scope attachment rather than EJCDC’s Exhibit A Scope of Services.
The most notable other additions and clarifications to the update include:
- Acknowledgement that project-related Management of Geotechnical Subconsultant’s Services is an important part of the standard scope of services, and assigning it a specific section under Basic Services;
- Enhanced guidance on establishing the baseline scope of services with detailed provisions to update required geotechnical services as the actual site conditions become known or change;
- Expanded scope listing and rates schedule for types of geotechnical analyses/tests to be considered by users;
- More comprehensive utility coordination language for physical investigations at the site, addressing notification/coordination with utility owners, utility information sharing, and utility damage mitigation and prevention;
- An improved process for coordination of geotechnical services with third party contractors during the construction phase;
- New, stand-alone Deliverables Schedule to combine schedule information into one exhibit and better reflect typical user schedule development practice;
- Addition of Pollution Liability Insurance in the insurance table as a coverage option reminder to users, together with line item options for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and Cyber Liability insurance when these coverages are applicable to the geotechnical services provided;
- Clarification of payment and expense provision language while maintaining the E-Series’ standard and balanced subconsultant “Time for Engineer’s Payment of Invoices” options;
- Inclusion of an Electronic Documents Protocol (EDP) exhibit to promote and manage use of electronic documents among the project parties;
- Relocation and re-naming of various exhibits to match recent updates of other EJCDC professional services agreements and user practices.
In keeping with EJCDC’s other 2020 Series updates, E-564 2025 now uses the term “Subconsultant” rather than “Consultant” for engineering and other professional firms retained by the Engineer. The term Subconsultant is in widespread use in the engineering industry and provides a stronger distinction between the Engineer as prime design professional (often itself a consulting firm or “consultant” in common industry parlance) and the specialty services professional firms retained by the Engineer.
E-564 2025 is packaged in two parts: (1) The Main Agreement and (2) The Exhibits. As with E-500 and E-570, the 2025 edition of E-564 is published as two separate Word files, one file containing the Main Agreement form and the second file containing the Exhibits (A through J). Both files contain integral building blocks of an Engineer-Geotechnical Subconsultant contract, and each E-564 purchase will result in transmittal (download) to the purchaser of both files.
Because most users develop the Main body of the agreement separately from the scope, schedule, cost and other project attachments, delivery of E-564 in two manageably sized files is consistent with common practice and project customization. After all editing has been completed (in Word) in for each part of the agreement, each of the two files can be converted to a PDF, and as the final step the two PDF files can then be merged into a single contract document, in PDF.
The EJCDC® E-564 is currently available for purchase in the online store at EJCDC.org. Members of EJCDC®’s sponsoring organizations (the American Council of Engineering Companies, the National Society of Professional Engineers, and the American Society of Civil Engineers – Construction Institute) can also purchase this document directly from those organizations starting today at a 50% discount.
Over the last 50 years, Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee (EJCDC®) has developed and updated fair and objective standard documents specifically written for infrastructure projects in the United States. Each EJCDC® Contract Document is systematically prepared, reviewed and analyzed by committees of experienced engineering design and construction professionals, owners, contractors, professional liability and risk management experts, with the participation and advice of legal counsel.
For more information, please contact EJCDC® Executive/Marketing Director Katie LaPotin at katie@ejcdc.org or (571) 396-5495.
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