Owner's Representative Duties
Effective Jan 16, 2026Mass. Register #1565MGL c. 30, § 39M½(m)Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
(1) For each project to which an Owner's Representative is assigned, the Owner's Representative shall, pursuant to M.G.L. c. 30, § 39M½, perform the following duties:
- (a) conduct a Peer Review of engineering elements on the project;
- (b) serve as primary manager of Value Engineering and participate in evaluation of overall design to determine if any Value Engineering options are feasible for the project;
- (c) serve as primary manager of all Cost Recovery activities on the project; and
- (d) file an annual report on the project, under oath, not later than December 31st of each year in which the Major Contract is in effect, to the Inspector General, the Secretary of Transportation, the House and Senate Chairs of the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Transportation, and the State Auditor.
(2) The Public Agency may require the Owner's Representative to perform additional duties, including, but not limited to, the following:
(a) Design Phase.
- 1. Review cost estimates prepared by the Designer.
- 2. Review construction schedules prepared by the Designer.
- 3. Review design for constructability issues.
- 4. Review design for risk analysis considerations.
- 5. Notify the Public Agency of any concerns related to cost estimates, construction schedules, constructability issues, and risk analysis as soon as reasonably possible.
- 6. Monitor the Designer's progress to help ensure the project advances on schedule and remains on budget and notify the Public Agency of any significant deviations from the approved schedule and budget.
- 7. Prepare monthly progress reports on design and budget.
- 8. Participate in project development meetings.
(b) Bid Phase.
- 1. Monitor the assembly of bid documents, and if directed by the Public Agency, assist Designers and the Public Agency in determining the necessary bid documents.
- 2. Monitor the responses to written questions from bidders, the issuing of addenda and the review of bids to determine responsiveness.
(c) Construction Phase.
- 1. Monitor compliance with pre-construction activities and notify the Public Agency of any significant deviations from approved pre-construction activities.
- 2. Review applications for extra work orders, time extensions and other contract modifications, and make recommendations on whether such modifications should be granted.
- 3. Monitor the timely resolution of issues impacting schedule and cost.
- 4. Review the contractor's schedule of operations (contract progress schedule) and notify the Public Agency of any significant deviations from the approved schedule.
- 5. Prepare monthly progress reports on construction and budget for the Public Agency and notify the Public Agency as soon as reasonably possible of any significant deviations from the approved budget.
- 6. Issue final reports compiling all monthly reports and information.