Start with the opening drawing note of the issued Section 31 62 13.20: confirm that the pile plan and schedule give each pile’s location, design load, type, size, length, strand pattern, and batter, and that the general notes give the bending moments and lateral loads the PART 1 note says the structural engineer must provide. Then check that the basis of bid, acceptance criteria, test pile and load test program, splice and build-up details, cutoff elevations and cap embedment, tolerances, and coating areas kept in the section agree with the pile cap details and the geotechnical report, and that pile cap excavation in Section 31 00 00 follows the same sequence.
Assemble the review package
Gather the foundation or pile plan with pile marks, the pile schedule with design loads, capacities, tip and cutoff elevations, and batter, the typical pile section with the strand pattern, spirals, ties, and chamfer, the splice, build-up, pile shoe, and pile head details, the pile cap plan, schedule, and reinforcement details, the foundation beam and slab drawings that bear on the caps, the structural general notes with design loads, bending moments, lateral loads, and uplift, the geotechnical report with boring logs, groundwater, sulfate and chloride results, and the recommended pile type and capacity, the boring location plan with any test pile and load test locations, the survey of existing structures and utilities near the work, the site and phasing plans, and the issued Section 31 62 13.20 with Sections 31 00 00, 03 30 00, and 01 45 35. Follow one pile from its schedule line through its section detail to its cap before assuming the others match.
WBDG publishes UFGS 31 62 13.20: Precast/Prestressed Concrete Piles as a public guide-specification reference (accessed November 7, 2026). Use your project’s issued specification and amendments for the actual comparison; the guide specification does not automatically govern your project. The checklist below is an original suggested review workflow, not a reproduction of the UFGS requirements.
Eight checks to run against the issued set
Use one record per location or system. The CSV contains the same eight prompts plus fields for source revisions, observed evidence, the review owner, the decision, and closure references.
| Check | Sources to compare | Question to resolve |
|---|---|---|
| Pile plan, schedule, and design loads | Opening drawing note (locations and design loads, tension and compression piles by type, size, shape, and length, strand locations, sizes, number, and unit stresses, reinforcement, splices, test piles, soil data, vertical or battered) + PART 1 structural engineer note + Description article + foundation plan, pile schedule, and structural general notes | Does every pile mark on the foundation plan resolve to a schedule line with its design load, size, shape, and length, are tension and compression piles given separate types where the design has both, as the note requires, are battered piles identified with their direction, and do the general notes or schedule give the bending moments, lateral loads, and other design requirements the PART 1 note says the structural engineer must provide, since the Description article has the contractor design, furnish, install, and test the piles? |
| Basis of bid and production pile acceptance | Basis of Bid notes + Production Pile Acceptance Criteria article + Lump Sum Payment article, its note, and Table 1 + Unit Price (Navy) and Payment (Army) articles + pile schedule, bid schedule, and Section 01 20 00 | Is one basis kept, lump sum only for the small, lightly loaded, well-defined jobs its note describes and with the number, capacity, locations, and tip and cutoff elevations clearly shown on the drawings, or unit price where exact lengths cannot be set before the work, does a lump sum section leave out test piles and load tests, which its note says lump sum contracts do not include, does the safe design capacity blank match the pile schedule, is one of minimum tip elevation or minimum penetration below cutoff kept, and is the basis for the terminal driving criteria one the test program actually provides? |
| Geotechnical report, test piles, and load tests | Subsurface Data article + Pile Requirements article and note + Test Piles article and note + Static Load Tests note and article, Safe Design Capacity, Tensile Load Test, and Lateral Load Test paragraphs + boring location plan, geotechnical report, and pile plan | Does the subsurface data paragraph point to logs that actually appear where it says, are test piles located on the plans or tied to boring numbers, as the test pile note asks, at spots that can be incorporated into the work, is the ordering sequence clear, with production piles ordered only from the calculated tip elevation list, and where the schedule carries tension or lateral piles, is a tensile or lateral load test kept, with the number and location of load tests, the anchor pile choice, and one acceptance criterion selected, as the static load test note directs? |
| Driving equipment, wave equation, jetting, and predrilling | Installation Procedures article + Pile Driving Equipment, Pile Hammers, and Driving Helmets and Cushion Blocks articles + Hammer Cushion or Capblock note + Wave Equation Analysis of Pile Drivability article + Driving Piles article and note + Jetting of Piles and Predrilling of Piles articles and notes + Contractor’s Geotechnical Consultant Documentation article + geotechnical report | Is the wave equation analysis kept for each pile size and each distinct subsurface profile in the report, with the capblock type matching the one the analysis models, as the capblock note advises, is the Contractor’s Geotechnical Consultant paragraph kept wherever the section has that consultant set the terminal driving criteria or the calculated tip elevation, is a maximum hammer energy for driving with no tip resistance inserted where the Driving Piles note says it is needed, and are jetting and predrilling permitted only where their notes allow, not for piles that rely on side friction in fine-grained soils, carry uplift or lateral loads, or sit in close clusters without a load test, and not next to existing structures for jetting or in cohesionless soils for predrilling? |
| Strands, reinforcement, cover, and exposure | Drawing note items on strands and reinforcement + Cement notes on chloride and sulfate exposure + Reinforcing Steel notes on cover and protective coating + Concrete Mix Design note + Placing and Casting chamfer note + Epoxy Coating paragraph + Piles shop drawing article (ACI MNL-66, PE certification) + typical pile section, pile elevation, and geotechnical corrosivity data | Does the typical pile section give the strand number, size, and pattern, the unit stresses, the spirals and ties, and the chamfer the section asks the designer to select, do the cement type, water-cementitious ratio, supplementary materials, and chloride paragraphs kept match the sulfate and chloride exposure the report and site describe, is the cover on the pile detail chosen for that exposure, as the cover note directs, and are the areas to receive a protective or epoxy coating shown on the drawings, as the note requires, with the coated length the Epoxy Coating paragraph states compared against them and its state DOT reference filled in? |
| Splices, build-ups, shoes, points, and extensions | Pile Splices article and note + Build-Ups article and note (Build-Up With Driving and Build-Up Without Driving details) + Pile Shoe and Pile Driving Points articles + H-Pile Extensions paragraph + splice, build-up, pile tip, and composite pile details + Section 31 62 16.16 | Is “Splicing of piles is not permitted” kept unless piles are long or heavy enough to need splices, as the note advises, and where splices stay, do the drawings indicate the splice detail, as the note says they should, are the two build-up details the article names actually in the set, with the build-up concrete strength and the maximum share of build-ups filled in, a share the note ties to whether the pile top is a moment connection, are shoes and driving points detailed where the logs show hard driving, and if a composite pile with an H-pile extension is drawn, does the extension paragraph agree with the steel H-pile section? |
| Cutoff, cap embedment, tolerances, and as-driven survey | Pile Placement and Tolerances in Driving article and note + Damaged Piles article (pile driven below the butt elevation) + Pile Cut-Off and Patching articles + Formwork article (precast dowel holes) + Protection of Piles article (projecting reinforcement) + As-Driven Survey article + pile cap plan, schedule, and details | Do the pile cap details give each pile type’s cutoff elevation, its embedment into the cap, and the head connection, plain embedment, projecting strands or bars, or dowels grouted into holes formed in the pile, do the cap dimensions leave the clear distance from pile to cap edge the tolerance article requires once the placement tolerance is used, is one manipulation option chosen, does a detail or note show how a cap is deepened to embed a pile driven below cutoff, the remedy the Damaged Piles article offers, and does the schedule hold cap concrete until the as-driven survey is reviewed and the pile group’s safe load verified, as that article requires? |
| Excavation, existing structures, monitoring, and inspection | Driving Piles bracketed excavation and fresh-concrete options + Section 31 00 00 Pile Cap Excavation article + Section 03 30 00 Curing and Protection paragraph + Protection of Existing Structures note + Vibration Control, Noise Control, Preconstruction Condition Survey, and Construction Instrumentation and Monitoring Program articles + seismic special inspection note + site, phasing, and existing utility plans + Section 01 45 35 | Do this section and the Pile Cap Excavation article of Section 31 00 00 keep the same sequence, either stopping above the cap bottom and finishing after driving or excavating to the cap bottom first, is the fresh-concrete driving limit coordinated with the protection from pile driving vibration that Section 03 30 00 asks for, do the drawings show every structure and facility to be protected and is the project-specific document the note requires issued, are monitoring points shown where the section says they are, and are the locations needing special inspection indicated on the drawings, as the special inspection note requires? |
Worked example: one pile mark for uplift and compression piles, and two pile counts for one cap
Illustrative example: a new two-story training facility on soft clay over dense sand is carried on square prestressed concrete piles in two-, three-, and four-pile caps, with foundation beams and a flat slab. The pile schedule on the foundation plan gives one pile mark and one length for every pile, though the general notes say the stair core caps resist uplift, and the pile cap schedule on the detail sheet shows three piles at a cap the foundation plan draws with four. The issued Section 31 62 13.20 keeps the lump sum basis of bid along with test piles and static load tests, keeps “Make splices as indicated” with no splice detail in the set, and keeps stopping excavation above the cap bottom while Section 31 00 00 keeps excavating to the cap bottom before driving. The typical cap detail embeds the pile head with “dowels per pile supplier” and does not say whether the dowels are grouted into holes formed in the pile.
Ask the structural engineer to split the schedule into compression and tension pile marks with their loads, bending moments, and lateral loads, and to reconcile the two schedules in one revision so the piling and cap reinforcing crews work from the same pile count. Ask the specifier and the contracting officer to move to the unit price basis or drop the test program, since the lump sum note leaves test piles and load tests out, to add a tensile load test for the uplift piles if the geotechnical engineer wants one, and to keep one excavation sequence in both sections. Ask the structural engineer to add a splice detail or keep “Splicing of piles is not permitted”, and to detail the pile head connection with its cutoff elevation and embedment, including the dowel holes formed in the pile if dowels are used.
See the published structural revision finding. The illustrative scenario above is separate from that published finding.
Avoid a false conflict
Section 31 62 13.20 covers plant-cast prestressed piles and their driving and testing. Concrete pile caps, foundation beams, and the slab follow Section 03 30 00 and the concrete guide, pile cap excavation and backfill follow Section 31 00 00, special inspection follows Section 01 45 35, and precast framing members follow Section 03 45 33 and the precast structural concrete guide, so check those before calling a requirement missing. Post-tensioned and prestressed cylinder piles are UFGS 31 62 13.24, cast-in-place concrete piles in steel casing are 31 62 13.13, steel H-piles are 31 62 16.16 and the steel H-pile guide, and steel pipe piles are 31 62 16.13, all Active on WBDG. The section has the contractor design the piles from the structural engineer’s loads and has the contractor’s geotechnical consultant set the terminal driving criteria, so pile capacity, driving stresses, wave equation results, driving criteria, and load test interpretation are decisions for the structural and geotechnical engineers, not findings of a document review. Its Safe Design Capacity paragraph points to UFC 3-220-01, which the section lists as the digital version while the legacy WBDG record still shows the 2012 edition with Change 3 of July 2025; confirm the version your task order invokes. The current guide section cites ACI 318-19, ACI 211.1, ACI 214R, ACI MNL-66, AWS D1.4, ASTM A416, A615, A706, A1064, C33, C150, C595, C618, C989, C1202, C1218, C1240, C1260, C1567, D1143, D3689, D3966, D4945, and E329, PCI JR-382, PCI MNL-116, PCI MNL-135, and the PCI Bridge Design Manual; confirm the editions your project invokes.
When requirements disagree, follow the project’s document-control and clarification process. Do not assume that drawings always override specifications, or the reverse. Identify the exact sources and request an authorized decision.
Close the issue across the affected documents
Record the location or tag, drawing and specification references, issue dates, observed difference, and the decision needed. Assign an owner and keep the item open until the response identifies the governing requirement. Check the revised drawings and specification references together; a response email alone may leave the issued package inconsistent.
For the overall process, use the guide to drawing and specification conflicts. Mark an inapplicable checklist row with a reason, and distinguish a verified correction from a question that still needs design information.
Where Groundbook fits
Groundbook’s drawing and specification review helps investigate potential disagreements in the documents you supply. Include the relevant specification sections and drawing references, then verify the cited evidence with the responsible reviewers before acting on a finding.