About...

Celebrating 50 years as the voice of the engineering profession, the American Council of Engineering Companies/Maryland (ACEC/MD), with headquarters in Baltimore , is a nonprofit association of over 80 multi-sized consulting engineering firms located throughout the state serving the public as well as private sectors. Member firms employ approximately 5,000 employees and are responsible for the design of most of the area's infrastructure, environmental, and building construction. The organization focuses on the business aspects of the consulting engineering and surveying professions. ACEC/MD is one of 51 member organizations, representing more than 5,500 firms nationwide, making up the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), headquartered in Washington , D.C.

ACEC, and its member organizations, strive to improve professional management techniques and develop professional conduct standards consistent with the needs of the engineering and surveying professions. In recent years, ACEC/MD has played a major role in the enactment of laws that:

• Eliminated or de-emphasized bidding on state engineering and architectural procurement contracts;
• Limited liability from 20 to 10 years for engineers and architects;
• Provided coverage for engineers under mechanics lien laws;
• Require a certificate of merit for unwarranted legal action against design professionals; and
• Modified State Government Article 15-508 to provide for fairer competition on design/build projects.

In addition, through our liaison with federal, state, and local agencies such as the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) and its modal agencies, the Maryland Department of General Services (MDGS), the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE), and local jurisdictions, ACEC/MD has successfully influenced decisions such as adopting a more equitable selection process for MDGS projects, and raising the multiplication factor and principal rates on new projects commissioned by the city of Baltimore.

The aforementioned state and federal agencies and local jurisdictions know who we are and regularly solicit the opinion of our organization and its members! We continue to concern ourselves with issues such as:

• Transportation funding;
• Infrastructure improvements;
• Taxation on professional services;
• Unreasonable fee caps;
• Job site safety;
• Uninsurable contract conditions;
• Educating local jurisdictions about the benefits of qualifications based selection (QBS) and combating price competition at the state and local level;
• Local jurisdictions' regulatory processes;
• Cost containment for health and liability insurance; and
• Design/Build and other alternative delivery methods