Construction FAQs

With the AWP 5.01.030 release in April 2024, two of our payment estimate system events are not working correctly.

• Notice to Proceed Date Missing - Project field staff receive a warning when creating a payment estimate and the notice to proceed date is not populated on the Informational Times tab or the Contract Status Dates Agency View. In addition, an email would be sent to the Project Manager, Project Engineer and the Contract Specialist and this is the part that is not working.
• Time Charges Start Date Missing - When project staff create a payment estimate, if the Time Charges Start Date is missing, an email would be sent to the Project Manager, Project Engineer and the Contract Specialist and this is not working.

The AASHTOWare Project Administrators are working with InfoTech to resolve these issues with payment estimate system notifications.

With the AWP 5.01.030 release in April 2024, project staff will need to uncheck the Payroll Not Required checkbox to enter start / end time OR hours worked for the prime contractor. Subcontractors are not affected by this and should remain unchecked.

AWP Construction is a contract based system; however, due to recent filtering changes staff search using the contract ID, controlling project ID, region, county or the contractor. Go to How to Search for the Contract ID by Project ID if only an associated project ID is known.

Yes, this is possible. For example, a contract can have both a Project Engineer and an assistant Project Engineer and both staff would be assigned the Project Engineer role. In another example, a contract may have multiple contractors assigned to the contract.

Staff should determine who the main contact for the contract is as system messages will be sent to all staff with the same role. These messages include contract date reminder notices, contract status notification notices, change order approval messages, and payment estimate messages. Staff should identify internally who is creating and submitting each payment estimate and change order for approval with the understanding that multiple staff may have the ability to create and approve the payment estimate or change order but only one staff member per role can perform the approval each time.

Users must have an account with the Inspector role to be granted this authority on a contract. If you are unsure if the user has an AWP account with the Inspector role, contact the AWP Support mailbox for assistance. If they do not have an account, a link to the WisDOT AASHTOWare Project (AWP) Account Request form will be sent to them.

There can be multiple reasons the contract does not appear:

• Is the correct role selected? Remember AWP Construction is role base and the role with access to the contract must be selected.
• Were you granted contract authority to the contract? Again the system is role based. Either the Contract Specialist or the Project Engineer can grant staff access to the contract.
• What is the current status of the contract? When a contract is transitioned from AWP Preconstruction to AWP Construction at time of award, only the Contract Specialist and Compliance Specialist roles have access to the contract. After the contract is executed AND the Contract Specialist activates the contract, field staff will be able to access the contract in AWP Construction. At that point in time, they can begin the Contract Setup process.

Project Engineers will enter the items for all Tier 1 and all DBE subcontractors. If there are no items (e.g. trucking firms and suppliers) listed on the Request to Sublet forms, enter the total dollar amount under Trucker Amount or Supplier Amount on the Add Subcontract component. This will take place at the beginning and during the life of the contract.

Go to Subcontractors for more details.

Examples of splitting mobilization or other items between multiple subcontractors can be found on the Subcontractors | Assign items to subcontractors .

Project staff have the ability to export their item detail in an XLS format that can be imported into Microsoft Excel. There are two report exports available - all contract items or all contract project items. Go to generating the contract item or contract project item detail spreadsheets for more details.

• The Time Charges Start Date on the Main Contract Site 00.
• Erosion Control Implementation Plan (ECIP) data is entered on the ECIP/WPDES Agency View.
• The Construction Start (Work Began) date on the Contract Status Dates Agency View.

See Construction Start Dates (prior to construction starting) for more details.

Check with the Project Engineer to see if these fields are required for this specific project. Keep in mind that when the DWRs are associated to the corresponding diary for the same date, that the process will import the lowest low and the highest high temperature into the Project Engineer's diary. On some contracts, the Project Engineer may prefer to enter this information on the diary themselves.

Before adding item postings to the DWR ensure that:

• All subcontractors for the items to be posted must appear on the Contractors On Site tab. Go to DWRs | Contractors On Site tab for guidance.
• The consent date must be entered for all subcontractors on the Subcontractors component. Go to Subcontractors | Add Subcontractors for guidance.
• The items to be posted (original and new change order items) have been added to the subcontractor following the guidance at Subcontractors | Assign Items to Subcontractors. If the prime contractor is added to the Contractors On Site tab, item postings can be assigned to the prime contractor and items do not need to be assigned to the individual subcontractor(s) on the Subcontractors component.

If any of the above requirements are missing, either the subcontractor will NOT appear for the item to be posted or staff will be unable to save the item posting.

Go to Daily Work Reports (DWRs) for more details.

Diaries are locked automatically when they are included in an approved payment estimate. There is no approval process and no intervention is required on the part of the Project Engineer. When the payment estimate is created, diaries created since the last payment estimate through the date of the new payment estimate become part of the payment estimate.

When diaries are locked and included in an approved payment estimate:

• Only the diary remarks can be edited.
• The diary cannot be deleted from the contract.
• Approved item postings from associated and approved DWRs are included on the payment estimate.
• Working day site time charges from the associated diaries are included in the payment estimate and cannot be altered. Time can be adjusted on a locked diary to correct a diary time charge on an approved payment estimate using the Diary Adjustments tab.
• The estimate number for a locked diary is listed on the Contract Progress Summary | Diaries component.

Refer to Diaries for more information.

The estimate creation process time frame varies from contract to contract. After clicking <Add Payment Estimate>, click the Contract Progress Payment Estimate quick link located at the top of the screen. Wait for the estimate to be created. Click the browser refresh button if necessary. If the estimate doesn't appear on Contract Progress Payment Estimate component, the AddEstimatePayment process may have failed. Complete these steps to check the status of the add payment estimate process:

1. Open Global Actions Menu | Open Process History.
2. On the Process History tab, locate the AddPaymentEstimate process.
3. Open the AddPaymentEstimate.log.
4. If there is an error or warning, contact the AWP System Administrators for assistance. If the process is successful, go to Contract Progress | Payment Estimates to see if the estimate appears on the component now.

Yes, WisDOT requires Project Engineer's to enter utility conflicts into AWP Construction on the Utility Conflict Agency View. Go to Utility Conflict Agency View for more details.

In AWP Construction, the quantity of a lump sum item can be reduced to zero like all other contract items. No additional offsetting change order items need to be added to the contract. This is different than how lump sum items were handled in FieldManager and the Construction Administration System (CAS), where the lump sum quantity was required to be one and only one.

WisDOT will continue to use and support the Construction Contract Payment Viewing System (CCPVS) system.

The application uses the browser's built-in spell checker.

The AASHTOWare Project application provides a warning after 45 minutes of non-use and timeout after 60 minutes of non-use. Be aware of this because if interrupted when entering a fair amount of data (e.g. DWR or Diary remarks, Change Order data entry) and <Save> is not clicked, all data entry since the last time <Save> was clicked will be lost if the application times out.

Some staff are reporting issues syncing with AWP Construction due to issues with the former registration process. If you are a current Mobile Inspector user and HAVE NOT DOCKED the Mobile Inspector app on your device's desktop, complete these steps to dock the app and register your device.

1. Complete entry on any existing DWRs.
2. Lock and Sync the existing DWRs with AWP Construction.
3. Delete the Mobile Inspector bookmark from the browser.
4. Complete these steps to dock and re-register the Mobile Inspector app. Remember to send your new Device ID to the AWP Support mailbox. If you are unable to Sync with AWP Construction after completing these steps, contact an AWP System Administrator for assistance.

When creating a payment estimate, this mobilization item warning may appear on the Payment Estimate Exceptions tab.

This is a reminder that the next percentage threshold level on the 619.1000 Mobilization item has been reached and that the item might need to be included on this payment estimate. Refer to WS6191 Process Payments under Mobilization Bid Item (located in Pantry Statewide Spreadsheets) and continue to use this spreadsheet to track and make payments for mobilization.

See Handling Negative Estimates for details.

Change orders - All administrative items listed in CMM 238 have a unit of DOL. The unit price for these items should always be entered as 1.00 (or -1.00 for disincentives/credits). The quantity should be entered as the total dollar value. When adding a disincentive or non-conforming item on a change order make sure only the unit price is entered as a negative value. DO NOT enter the quantity field on any item as a negative value as this will result in an error upon saving the change order.

DWR postings - If the unit price was entered correctly on the change order (as 1.00 or -1.00), the quantity entered in the posting should be the total dollar value. DO NOT enter the quantity field on any item as a negative value as this will result in an error during the payment estimate creation process.

When using Microsoft Edge, users report that they are unable to generate and open the XLS reports in Microsoft Excel. Complete these steps to resolve this issue - Supported Operating System - Microsoft Edge settings.

Field staff are reporting more issues with the charging of Contract Time on diaries. We have added some additional guidance on the following web page: Diaries | Contract Time (Tip #2)

New data entry requirement for the Contract Setup | Additional Information component.
If there is no field office for this contract (project), enter "No field office on this project" in either the Field Office Directions OR Field Office Street Address field.

In Mobile Inspector, staff can attach photos as supporting documentation on the Report Details tab under Attachments. Special characters are not allowed in photo file names including ", %, *, @, \, /

Create a new DWR with the same date as the approved Diary. Approve the DWR. Upon opening the Diary with the same date, the new DWR will appear on the DWRs tab. If the Daily Diary Report is recreated, the new DWR will appear on the report too.

Occasionally based on Internet browser settings and how plug-ins are handled, the error below may appear when creating an AASHTOWare Project report.

If this occurs, go back to the Generate Report tab in the browser and on screen 4 of 5 (Output Options), select "Download PDF" to rerun the report and place the output results as a PDF file in the \Downloads folder.

Recent mandated security changes for iPhones and iPads implemented by the State of Wisconsin are affecting the Mobile Inspector app. WisDOT staff are able to complete the initial setup of the app including docking and registering it. However, once they attempt to use the Mobile Inspector app for the first time, the app will open with a blank screen. If this occurs, WisDOT staff should open a ticket with the DOT IT Service Desk for mobile device support. The Mobile Support Team will remove the staff member's device from the Smart Devices policy allowing them to access and use Mobile Inspector.

Force the reload of a web page:
Click <Ctrl> <F5> to force a web page reload. This will retrieve a completely new page and display the new contents.

OR

1. From the browser menu, select Settings | History | History.
   
   
2. On the History window, select "Clear browsing data".
   
   
3. On the Clear browsing data pop up window, select
   • Time range = All time
   • Select all types of browsing data to clear - browsing history, cookies and cached files.
   • Click <Clear Data>.
   
   

4. Close the browser, reopen it and try to open the web page again.

Users can add attachments to projects, proposals and contracts throughout the system; however, they cannot delete attachments once they are added to the system. Please contact the region Contract Specialist or the AWP System Administrators for assistance deleting an attachment from a DWR, Diary, Change Order or other record.