5.2.2 Structural Responsibilities in Lateral Loading Analysis Most transportation projects, such as bridges, retaining walls, noise walls, signs, and light poles, are primarily structural design projects and are therefore led by the structural engineer. The structural engineer has primary responsibility for tasks relating to the structural design. These generally include definition of project type and needs, determination of the foundation layout and head fixity conditions, determination of performance criteria (allowable deflection at the pile/shaft head and shear and moment capacity, development of applied loads (structural loads and reactions at the top of the foundation elements, analysis of the Structural Strength Limit State, preliminary and final structural design of foundation elements and connections to caps, development of construction documents, and development of as-built records. As discussed above, the structural engineer may also have primary responsibility of the design of an individual foundation element and group analysis, including Geotechnical Strength and Service Limit States, using the geotechnical inputs provided by the geotechnical engineer. The structural engineer should also participate in the constructability review. As discussed in Section 5.3.1, for projects that are primarily geotechnical in nature or that involve specialty geotechnical construction or unusual geotechnical conditions, the geotechnical engineer may take the lead role for some of these aspects of the design process with the structural engineer providing a secondary or support role. For these types of projects, the structural engineer may review the development of the loads, structural design of the foundation elements and connections, and review foundation layouts and foundation specifications, as well as perform review of construction submittals relating to structural design (foundation test apparatus setup, design of shoring systems, etc.
