109.14 Price Adjustment for Fuel (for Sec 109.14)
Prior to bid, the contractor must determine whether they will bid their project based on projected fuel prices, or if they will choose to utilize the fuel price adjustments provided in Sec 109.14. In their bid proposal, they will choose to accept or decline receiving a fuel adjustment for the bid items identified in Sec 109.14 when the contract is executed. Bidders must choose to accept or decline the fuel adjustments for qualifying pay items in each of the four categories: excavation (production), asphalt paving (production & hauling), concrete paving (production & hauling), aggregate base (hauling). Production factors account for fuel used in producing and placing a product (e.g. asphalt plant burner fuel, paver fuel, distributor fuel, etc.), whereas On-Road Hauling factors account for fuel used to haul the material to the project. The On-Road Hauling factor is based on a 30-mile round trip. This is an average factor that is always used regardless of the actual haul distance.
AWP automatically calculates the fuel price adjustment for all known qualifying standard pay items. Per Sec 109.14, non-standard pay items (generally designated with a "99" item number) do not qualify for fuel adjustment unless there is a Job Special Provision that overrides the spec and states the fuel adjustment shall apply to that item. Each estimate should be checked to verify that the appropriate fuel adjustments are being made either manually or auto-generated.
A Fuel Adjustment Calculation spreadsheet is available for manual calculations. Prior to calculating the adjustment, a check must be done to verify that the unit pay item matches the unit shown in the table in Sec 109.14. If not, a quantity conversion must be done before calculating the adjustment. For example, asphalt paid by the square yard would need to be converted to tons before multiplying by the corresponding factors in the table. The manually calculated fuel adjustment should then be added to the estimate as a CO Item Adjustments for the designated lines. The spreadsheet calculations should be retained in eProjects as documentation.
Payment for work should be made in the pay period (or at least a pay period in the same month) in which the work was performed in order for AWP to calculate the fuel adjustment accurately. If payment for work is submitted via AWP in a time period other than the month in which the work was performed, a manual fuel adjustment will be necessary. When this happens, the fuel price adjustment must be calculated for the correct estimate period and a contract adjustment must be made to correct for the difference in the index for the two estimate periods. Calculations should be retained with the contract documentation.
A table listing the Monthly Fuel Indexes is available in the right column under "Documents" on MoDOT’s Contractor Resources website.
The following table provides further guidance on when the fuel adjustment is applicable:
| Pay Item | Does Fuel Adjustment Apply? |
|---|---|
| Asphalt pavement, shoulders, and entrances (full depth and overlays) | Yes, all asphalt in Sections 401, 402 and 403 and ultrathin bonded asphalt wearing surface. |
| Job Order contracts | Fixed-cost pay items in Job Order Contracts do not qualify because they are considered “repair” work and not “construction” work. This exclusion is stated in Sec 109.14. |
| Concrete pavement (including pavement overlays), concrete base, shoulders, and entrances (i.e. 7” or 8” Paved Approach) | Yes. For overlays that have separate pay items for placing (SY) and furnishing (CY), only the square yards of placing should receive a fuel adjustment. For overlays that are paid entirely in CY, the unit of measure should be converted to SY and the adjustment should be paid based on SY at the theoretical thickness. |
| Concrete Bridge Approach Slab and Concrete Approach Pavement | No |
| Roller compacted concrete | Yes |
| Concrete sidewalk, median strip (concrete or asphalt), or curb & gutter | No |
| Full or partial depth pavement repair, asphalt and concrete | No, this concrete or asphalt material is for “repair”, not “construction”. Nor would the base rock for pavement repair. |
| Concrete or asphalt bridge deck overlays | Deck overlays do not qualify except when the roadway asphalt overlay extends across the bridge deck. |
| Seal coat, micro-surfacing, etc. | No |
| Stabilized Permeable Base | Yes |
| Type A2 and A3 shoulders (concrete and asphalt) | Yes, both the surface material and the base rock qualify, but not the portion of base rock identified as incidental. |
| Aggregate surfacing | No, aggregate under Section 310 does not qualify. |
| Other base rock such as 12" or 18" Rock Base (Section 303) | No. Only Type 1, 5, 7, and Stabilized Permeable Base qualify. |
| Base produced from rock on the project or from an adjacent source | No, the material must be hauled to the project. |
| Non-standard bid items. These are items not specifically listed in the Listing of Bid Items For Highway Construction at the time of letting (i.e. item numbers with a “99” designation). | No, not unless there is a JSP that specifically overrides Sec 109.14 and allows a fuel adjustment. |