48 
mapping, and measurement of profile and cross sections by photogrammetric meth- 
ods, especially for highway engineering purposes. In addition, the consultant 
should be required to submit with his proposal a plan for contract performance, 
manner of handling the contract, organization of his forces and the equipment 
owned by him which he will assign exclusively to performing the contract work. 
The plan should also include the type of aerial camera to be used, its focal 
length and lens characteristics including maximum tangential distortion, and 
the radial distortion, measured in millimeters, referred to the calibrated 
focal length for each five degrees of angle, and resultant average scale of the 
aerial vertical photography; photogrammetric instruments to be used and their 
optimum projection distance; the number of times the map compilation (manu- 
Script) scale will be larger than the scale of the photography; the number of 
times the photography flight height will be greater than the contour interval; 
materials to be used in the map manuscripts, finished maps, and reproductions 
of the finished maps; methods to be used in making the horizontal and the ver- 
tical control surveys for both the project ground control and the supplemental 
control that will be necessary for the mapping, including the number and dis- 
tribution of ground control survey points to be established; an outline of the 
order for performance of the work with an indication of the time (calendar 
days) for completion of each sequential segment of the work; and any other per- 
tinent information which will give assurance of satisfactory performance. 
The contracting authority should use this plan for contract performance 
in conjunction with other available information in determining qualifications 
and competency of the consultant before a contract award is made. After award, 
this plan for contract performance should be one of the contract documents and 
be used to measure the consultant's prosecution and progress of contract work. 
If such procedure is not followed, there is likelihood of awarding the 
contract to a consultant who has submitted proposals for other aerial survey 
projects to many different contracting authorities, and who, because of his 
price quotations, would be awarded more aerial surveys contracts than his capac- 
ity would permit him to perform. When this happens, regardless of whether the 
consultant could have adequately performed the specified work for which each 
contract award was made if not overburdened by all of them at one time, a sit- 
uation has been created in which all contracts may suffer in one or a combina- 
tion of several ways: (1) noncompletion on time; (2) "corner cutting" to 
decrease work in attempts to keep on schedule, which, of course, will usually 
result in inferior quality and accuracy; and (3) mediocre work and performance 
which otherwise would not occur. All of these add up to an unsatisfied con- 
tracting authority and a worried consultant. In addition, the contracting 
authority will become heir to the additional costs associated with poor qual- 
ity photography and inaccurate maps, as outlined earlier in the section on 
accuracy and completeness tests of maps. 
It is therefore recommended that the engineering professions of photogram- 
metry and highways take whatever steps are necessary to reduce to a minimum and 
eliminate, if possible, all unsatisfactory consequences arising from awarding 
contracts on the basis of low price only for the performance of aerial surveys. 
Yr U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE:1960 O—543726 
  
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D.C. - Price 40 cents