Chapter 2 - § 2.3 • ENGINEER LICENSING LAW
| Jurisdiction | Colorado |
§ 2.3.1-Entitlement to Practice
In order to practice engineering in Colorado, one must obtain a license from the state through the State Board of Licensure for Architects, Professional Engineers, and Professional Land Surveyors.88 While no reported cases address the issue of whether local jurisdictions can impose a separate license requirement on engineers, in all likelihood the state licensing scheme preempts local jurisdictions from doing so.89 Unlike some state licensing acts, which differentiate between various engineering disciplines such as civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering, Colorado's Act does not.90 While the legislature attempted to allow the Board to separately license each discipline in the past, that effort was held unconstitutional due to an inappropriate delegation of legislative authority to the Board.91 It has not been attempted again. Instead, anyone who engages in the "practice of engineering" must be licensed.
§ 2.3.2-Entities Allowed
Colorado's Act provides: "An entity may practice or offer to practice engineering in Colorado only if the individual in responsible charge of the entity's engineering activities performed in Colorado is a professional engineer licensed in Colorado."92 A partnership, corporation, limited liability company, or joint stock association cannot obtain an engineering license.93 The practice of engineering through or for an entity is permissible if the practice of engineering is performed at the direction of a licensed engineer who seals all work product and who is directly responsible for the work.94
§ 2.3.3-When Licensing Is Required
A license is required to practice engineering within the meaning of the Act and also to use the words "engineer," "engineered," or "engineering" in any offer to the public.95 Therefore, out-of-state firms seeking private engineering work in Colorado must comply with the licensing law as well as any other requirements that may apply by virtue of the firm's organizational structure.96 Colorado does not provide for temporary licensing for out-of-state engineers for projects of limited duration.
§ 2.3.4-Engineering Defined
In Colorado, there is only one license classification for engineers. The Act defines "engineer" as
a person who, by reason of intensive preparation in the use of mathematics, chemistry, physics, and engineering sciences, including the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, is qualified to perform engineering work as defined in [the Act].97
In turn, the "practice of engineering" is defined as
the performance for others of any professional service or creative work requiring engineering education, training, and experience and the application of special knowledge of the mathematical and engineering sciences to such professional services or creative work, including consultation, investigation, evaluation, planning, design, and the observation of construction to evaluate compliance with plans and specifications in connection with the utilization of the forces, energies, and materials of nature in the development, production, and functioning of engineering processes, apparatus, machines, equipment, facilities, structures, buildings, works, or utilities, or any combination or aggregations thereof, employed in or devoted to public or private enterprise or uses.98
A "professional engineer" is "an engineer duly licensed pursuant to [the Act]."99
Licensed architects are not required to have an engineering license to the extent the services they provide overlap with those provided by engineers.100 Likewise, nothing in the architectural licensing act "shall be construed as curtailing or extending the rights of any other profession or craft."101 As such, to the extent the practice of engineering involves the incidental practice of architecture, an architectural license is not required. While the line between architecture and engineering was more clearly defined by statute in Colorado in the past,102 with the expansion of the definition of the "practice of engineering," it is difficult to anticipate how Colorado courts would address the issue of the overlap between the professions.
The engineering licensing law neither defines nor addresses design-build and construction management. These topics are addressed below in §§ 2.4.5 and 2.4.6.
Another issue left unaddressed by the licensing law is that of "performance specifications." Generally, performance specifications require that the contractor assume responsibility for providing its own design that conforms to certain described performance criteria.103 Submitting a design to comply with a performance specification prepared by an engineer or architect might arguably constitute the "practice of engineering" or "practice of architecture" under the licensing acts, thereby exposing a contractor to sanctions contained in those acts. However, because performance specifications are commonly and effectively used in the construction industry and because contractor submittals are typically reviewed and approved for use by engineers and architects, a contractor responding to performance specifications probably is insulated from liability. However, no Colorado case has addressed the issue directly.
§ 2.3.5-Exemptions
A license is not required in all instances, even if engineering services are being performed. The...
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