Underpinning in Baltimore

[Eric Teran]

I’m hoping a Baltimore developer can help me out on this one. I’m an Architect and I am designing a house for a client that is a full gut rehab. We have to do underpinning. I mainly work in DC and NOVA and when we do underpinning we have a third party inspector during construction. However, in Baltimore the building reviewer has told me that the structural engineer of record has to provide the site observation and reports. They do not accept a third party report. The structural engineer that prepared these plans lives near Dulles and does not want to drive to Baltimore multiple times.

Questions:

1. Is this true?

2. If it is true does anyone have a structural engineer near Baltimore?

3. If this is not true does anyone have a third party inspector that does work in Baltimore for underpinning?

I appreciate the help.