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Judgment & ambiguity · When to escalate

A contractor proposes a value-engineering substitution that saves real money and looks fine to you, but it deviates from the design intent in a way the original engineer of record might see differently. You're the site engineer. Do you approve it, and if not, why not?

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I don't approve a substitution that touches design intent, however sensible it looks — that decision belongs to the engineer of record, and my job is to route it there well, not to shortcut it.

The full answer: structure, worked example, likely follow-up.

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