Eckels, 063032 PAAGO, AGO 54

• Case Date: June 30, 1932
• Court: Pennsylvania

Honorable Samuel Eckels, AGO 54 Opinion No. 54 Pennsylvania Attorney General Opinions Opinion of the Attorney General June 30, 1932          Highways — Defective Material — Inspection—-Responsibility of Contractor— Duties of Chief Engineer in Certifying Completion of Contract. The Chief Engineer of the Department of Highways would not be warranted in certifying to the Secretary of Highways the completion of a contract until and unless the contractor remedies the defective work and completes his contract, in accordance with the specifications, and in the manner which meets with the approval of the Chief Engineer.          Honorable Samuel Eckels,          Chief Engineer,          Department of Highways..          Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.          Sir: You have asked to be advised as to your duties as chief engineer, under your contract form No. 408 of April 1930, in the matter of certifying completion of the contract for final settlement with the contractor under the following circumstances.          The contract was entered into for the construction of a road under which the contractor could use slag as a coarse aggregate in the concrete surface course. The source of supply from which the contractor procured the slag was approved by your department, and your inspector did not discover any defective material after inspection of the stock pile from which the contractor secured the slag. After approximately three thousand feet of road had been laid, certain blow-ups were discovered, which after inspection were found to have been caused by pieces of flux stone which had been in the aggregate and had not been discovered either by your inspector or by the contractor. You state that there is no question about the good faith of the contractor or any of the inspectors of the department, and that the presence of flux stone in slag is extremely' difficult to detect.          Section 78 of Contract No. 408 gives the specification for slag to be used in concrete surface course:

"Crushed slag shall consist of clean, tough, durable pieces of air cooled blast furnace slag, * * * free from. * * * flux stone. * * *"

         The defect in the work under the facts above stated was due to the failure of the material to comply with Section 78 of the specifications above quoted in that the slag used as the aggregate had some flux stone in it. Therefore, the only question involved is whether the contractor is relieved of responsibility under his contract...