Help:Contents

The Michigan Department of Transportation - Construction Manual (CM) contains MDOT clarification on policy, procedure and guidance for the construction of road and bridge infrastructfure and other related facilities. It also includes specific technical topics related to the divisions of the 2012 Standard Specifications for Construction (2012 SSFC). The information is presented in numerous articles having as simple a layout as possible. These articles are numbered to reflect as closely as possible the pay items and divisions from the 2012 SSFC.

The CM is not a contract document and CM articles are not referenced as "sections" but as CM XXX.XX.XX or "articles" to avoid confusion with MDOT specifications. Where a conflict exists between the CM and a contract, the contract document rules. References and links to the Michigan Standard Specifications are given as "Sec XXX.XX" or "Section XXX.XX of the 2012 Standard Specifications for Constuction." References and links to the Michigan Standard Plans or Special Details are "Standard Plan R-##-A" or "Special Detail ##".

Organization

The CM articles are grouped into divisions and sections similar to the 2012 SSFC. The sections are then broken down into four (4) smaller sub-divisions similar to the 2012 SSFC. These are:

• General (Description)
• Materials
• Construction
• Measurement and Payment

The bulk of the information will typically be under the construction sub-divison for each section.

Content Suggestions

To make revisions to the content a User (must be registered) can make a suggestion to the Content Manager for a particular division:

The Content Managers for the various divisions are:

• Division 1 - Jason Clark
• Division 2 - Dave Gauthier
• Division 3 - Curtis Bleech
• Division 4 - Dave Gauthier
• Division 5 - Kevin Kennedy
• Division 6 - John Staton
• Division 7 - Matt Chynoweth
• Division 8 - Jason Gutting

The Content Managers will then assign to technical staff to discuss the merits of the suggested revision, make any supportive changes to theB reccomendation and update the content if deemed appropriate. Just because a User suggests a change does not mean that it will happen automatically, it will be vetted throught appropriate review teams.

• Category 1: Editorial changes only, Content Manager can make the change without reveiw from technical experts
• Category 2: Slight technical change or impacts more then one division of the CM. This will be distributed by the Content Manager to an Ad Hoc team of technical area experts for review, discussion, approval and editing.
• Category 3: Complex technical change, policy revision, or high cost. The Content Manager, will assemlbe an Ad Hoc team of technical area experts for reveiew, disscusion and drafting of a proposal to the Engineering Operation Committee (EOC). The EOC will then make a decision regarding implementation of the change in to the CM.

Terms

• Shall Mandatory practice, contract documents often contain independent definitions
• May Optional practice(s) with no requirement or recommendation.
• Should Expected or necessary. While not absolutely mandatory deviation from this practice calls for engineering documentation

History

Would it be useful for you to be able to find when and how an article that you are interested in changed? Or view exactly what an EPG article stated and how it looked in the past? Log into the EPG and a “History” tab is available at the top of every article, providing a view of any previous versions of the EPG article or comparing any two versions of the article on a line-by-line basis.

Many of the revisions will have a brief explanation. A bold "M" indicates a minor change (a Category 1 editorial change).

Watch/Watchlist

This is used to collect articles in you are interested in to be able to view the changes to these articles.

When you log into the CM a “watch” tab is located at the top of every article of the CMG. Clicking the “watch” tab will add the article to your watch list. To remove it from the watch list click the same tab which is now labeled "unwatch".

To view revisons to the watch list articles open up "my watch list" above the CM articles tab choose the view changes that occured during a past time frame (2 hours, 6 hours, 3 days, etc.). A bold "M" identifies a minor change, new articles are identified with a bold "N". For significant revisions a descriptions of the revision is typically provided.

Discussion

Those logged into the CM are encouraged to use the discussion capability of the CM. If you have a question, it is likely others may, too. Any suggestions you have may also be very helpful to another reader, as well. Use the “Discussion” capabilities of the CM to contribute questions and suggestions for all other readers. The Construction Field Services staff monitors all articles so that your comment can be addressed.

After logging in, simply go to the article of concern and select the “Discussion” tab at the top of the article. If your comment or question is the first discussion for the article, you will be shown an edit screen. Type in your comment or question. Otherwise, an existing discussion will be shown. Additional comments can be added by selecting the “+” tab.

Registering

There are benefits to becomign a registered user. This will allow you to create watchlists, get involved and start discussions and alsot allow you to make suggested changes to the CM at any time.

To become registered is as simple as creating a log in and verifying through the auto generated e-mail which you'll recieve.