SCDOT CPM scheduling requirements: the Construction Schedules supplemental specification
The South Carolina Department of Transportation puts its scheduling requirements in a document of their own: the supplemental specification Construction Schedules, dated 4 November 2013. It is not a subsection of a standard specification book but a stand-alone provision, and the special provision on a given contract states which of its three levels applies.
The three levels are named in the document's opening: Level 1, a minimal requirement; Level 2, a standard critical path method schedule; and Level 3, a CPM schedule with a monthly cumulative payment clause. The level is chosen from the design field review done before construction, or during estimate development.
Whether this document remains current was not established. It is dated 2013 — the oldest of the agency documents read for this site — and the agency's index of supplemental specifications did not resolve on the retrieval that obtained it (1 September 2026).
What makes this specification distinctive is that the schedule is a payment instrument. Every activity is cost loaded, the narrative reports earned value against planned value, and at Level 3 the accepted baseline caps what the agency pays out in each period. No other document compared on this site connects the network to the money that directly.
What the Construction Schedules specification requires
The table below states the Level 2 requirements, which are also the base for Level 3. Level 1 requires only a four-week look-ahead, updated every two weeks, in a word processor or spreadsheet format; a Contractor may elect to provide a CPM schedule instead, for the whole project duration, and is paid at the Level 1 rate for doing so.
| Requirement | What the Construction Schedules specification states | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduling software | Named. Primavera Project Management 5.0 or Primavera Contractor 5.0 as a minimum, with the export coordinated with the District Scheduler so it imports into the version the Department runs. Submissions are uploaded in .xer format, with a PDF copy carrying a stated column set. |
Schedule Submissions |
| Baseline deadline | Regular bid projects: no more than 15 calendar days after the contract is executed, or 15 days before the preconstruction conference, whichever comes first. A+B projects: no less than 15 calendar days before the preconstruction conference. Review comments within 10 business days; the Contractor responds within 5. Work does not start before the baseline is accepted. | Submission, Review and Acceptance Process |
| Update frequency | Monthly, no later than 15 calendar days after the end of the most recent estimate period, with a data date one day past that period end — required whether or not an estimate was generated and whether or not work was done. A final as-built schedule follows within 15 calendar days of contract completion. | Monthly Updates |
| Narrative | Required with the baseline and every update, to 19 numbered contents — among them the Schedule Variance Index with planned and earned value, the current critical path and its lowest total float, each logic and duration change with its reason, an explanation of each constraint, and out-of-sequence work and failed starts explained individually. | Schedule Narrative |
| Recovery or revised schedule trigger | Two routes. The narrative carries a recovery plan whenever the project is behind the accepted baseline. Separately, the performance provisions request one when the Schedule Variance Index falls into stated bands, escalating on a second occurrence. | Schedule Narrative, Contract Performance Action |
| Time impact analysis | Not stated in this provision. No named method and no fragnet requirement were read. The schedule is a stated basis for evaluating requests for more contract time, and supporting documentation is included and referenced in the schedule as it arises, but no form is prescribed. | Level 2 Schedule Requirements |
| Float ownership | Neither side owns it: the agency is denied exclusive use or benefit and so is the Contractor. Negative float is barred from the original baseline. | Float |
| Activity durations | Original duration capped at 30 calendar days. In an update, a task-dependent activity past 30 days of actual duration without further cost since the last update is ended and broken up, with the reason in the narrative. | Activities, Monthly Updates |
| Logic completeness | Every activity sits in the logic-driven network with a predecessor, except the first, and a successor, except the last. Activity names carry a verb and a noun, plus the location where the same work recurs elsewhere. | Activities |
| Settings and prohibited fields | Retain logic required, progress override not permitted, longest path defining critical activities, physical percent complete as the default, time periods of 8 hours a day and 2,000 a year. Suspend dates and Activity Expected Finish dates are not used; negative lag is not used and lag is minimised in favour of an activity standing for it; two user text fields are reserved to the agency. | Default Values, Schedule Details |
| Calendars | A Department calendar per activity; alternates permitted but justified in the baseline narrative; calendars project specific rather than global. Weather is accounted for inside durations, and calendars are not modified for it. | Calendars, Weather |
| Cost loading | Every activity cost loaded, using the contract bid items as expense categories with unit prices and quantities, and those categories only. Resource loading is not required. | Cost Loading, Expenses |
| Level 3 selection | Bid amount over $20 million and one of two conditions: the agency's financial position calls for specific control of large monthly payouts, or the Schedule Variance Index sits outside a stated band for two consecutive months. | Level 3 Schedule Requirements |
The schedule as the payment ceiling
At Level 3, the accepted cost-loaded baseline stops being a description of intent and becomes a limit. The Contractor is not paid more than the cumulative amount the baseline shows through each payment date, whatever later updates say, and the specification works the point through six periods. Estimates are still generated from actual installed quantities; where those run past the cumulative scheduled amount, the difference is held and released as later periods fall below the scheduled line. A re-baseline, where the agency accepts one, may move the payout curve with it.
One consequence is written into the specification rather than left to be discovered: subcontractors are paid in full for completed work within 7 days of the agency's payout, even in periods where that payout is less than the work installed. The prompt payment provision is amended here to say so.
In most specifications a cost-loaded activity is a reporting convenience. Here, at Level 3, the expense fields are the numbers the payment runs against, so a schedule whose cost loading is wrong is wrong about something other than time.
Performance measured as an index
The specification does not stop at requiring a schedule; it defines how the agency reads one. For Level 2 and Level 3 contracts, budgeted cost of work performed and budgeted cost of work planned produce a Schedule Variance Index, and the document states both the formula it uses and the bands that trigger action. A first occurrence in a stated band brings a preliminary notice and a request for a recovery plan; a second brings the notice with a bonding notification, held while the plan is monitored. Level 1 contracts are measured differently, against percentile performance curves built from the agency's own historical data by contract type and bid range. Neither measure applies until the contract has passed a stated share of its time.
Most of the documents compared on this site say what the Contractor submits and leave what the agency does with it to be inferred. This one prints the thresholds, the escalation and the arithmetic.
This project computes none of those measures and does not grade a schedule's performance. It reports what the imported schedule contains — durations, relationships, calendars, constraints, float and the cost fields as carried in the file. What follows from those numbers is determined by the reviewing authority.
Settings the specification fixes
An unusual amount of this document is about software settings rather than about the work, and settings are the most mechanically decidable clauses in any scheduling specification, because the export declares them. Two here sit at the edge of what this engine reads: the expected finish field is not imported, and a stated zero lag may not be distinguishable from no lag, depending on how the file was written. The limitations page states which categories those are.
What this page does not tell you
- It does not tell you which clauses govern your project. The incorporated contract documents — including the special provision that states which schedule level applies — are what apply. An agency's name alone does not establish which clauses govern.
- It does not tell you which level applies. Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 impose materially different obligations, and the level comes from the special provision rather than from the project's size alone.
- Currency was not established. This document is dated 4 November 2013 and whether a later revision exists was not confirmed.
- The schedule template was not read. The specification incorporates a downloadable schedule template carrying the agency's expense categories. Requirements carried only in that template are not established here.
- There is no rule pack behind this page. It rests on a reading of the specification text, with each requirement cited to the heading it came from.
- This project computes and reports; it does not decide submissions. It states what the imported schedule contains and checks it against the clauses cited. Delinquency, entitlement and acceptance are determined by the reviewing authority.
Related pages
- How state DOT scheduling specifications compare.
- Neighbouring readings: ADOT · MnDOT · NJDOT.
- UFGS scheduling requirements.
- The XER format and calendars in an XER file.
- Glossary — float, retain logic, longest path, lag.
- What the engine does and its limitations.
- The conformance rule catalogue and the standards map.
Source: web/pages/scdot-scheduling.md. Source commit date: 2026-09-11.