Stop 5 of 8 · Weekly
The ITS specification
The agency standard plus the project needs become a specification section, clause by clause, with the edition check left where it belongs.
What a spec section really is
Two thirds assembly, one third engineering. The agency's standard specification already says how a video detection unit is tested, what a cabinet has to withstand and what the submittal package contains. Leila's job is to pull the right clauses, keep their numbering, adapt them to what this corridor actually needs, and then write the clauses the standard does not have: the ones about the existing copper interconnect, the shared pole with the utility, or the fact that four of the seven cabinets are 30 years old.
The assembly part is where a week goes. It is also the part where a section gets copied from the last project and quietly carries a requirement that no longer exists.
The three piles
| Pile | Who writes it |
|---|---|
| Clauses that come straight from the standard | Claude, with the section number attached |
| Clauses that need adapting to this project | Claude drafts, Leila rewrites the changed sentence |
| Clauses the standard does not cover | Leila, as a project special provision |
The stamp rule is the whole reason for the three piles. Claude drafts and sorts. The licensed engineer decides which clause applies, what a deviation costs and what goes out for bid, and signs the set. A specification is a contract document, and the seal on the cover page is a statement about every clause under it.
The version check
This is the failure mode with the longest fuse. Claude sees the PDF you gave it. It cannot tell you the agency issued Revision 4 in June, it cannot tell you the referenced test method was superseded, and it will not warn you. So the check lives with Leila and it happens twice: once when the standard goes into the Project files, with the edition and date written into the instructions, and once before the specification is issued, against whatever the contract actually incorporates.
Write the edition into the file name. Agency standard specs 2024 Rev 3 is a file name that argues with you when it is a year old.
[upload the agency standard specification] Draft the vehicle detection section for this project using only the clauses in this standard. Keep the standard's own numbering and clause language. After each clause, put the section number in this standard that it came from. Where a clause needs a project value such as a quantity, a mounting height or a lane assignment, leave it as [PROJECT VALUE] with a note saying what I have to supply.
From the same standard and this project description [paste the project description], list every requirement this project needs that the standard does not cover, and every standard clause that does not fit this project as written. Two lists. For each item, one sentence on why the standard does not cover it and what a special provision would have to say. Do not draft the special provisions.
[upload the project description and the existing equipment inventory] Read the specification draft against these. List every place where the specification assumes something the corridor does not have: communication that is not there, cabinets that will not take the equipment, power that is not confirmed, mounting that is not available. Give me the specification clause, what it assumes, and what the inventory says.