Overview
Department of Transportation (DOT) specification books follow formatting standards that differ from CSI (US) and CAWS (UK) specifications. Fieldwire supports these formats with automated detection and sectioning making it easier to work with infrastructure and transportation‑focused projects.
When you upload a DOT spec book, Fieldwire identifies section headers, titles, and page ranges using DOT‑specific formatting patterns. Each detected section goes through the same review and confirmation workflow used for CSI and CAWS documents, allowing you to verify accuracy before Fieldwire creates individual spec sections.
This functionality reduces the time and manual effort required to prepare DOT specification books for use on your project, ensuring your field and office teams always have access to clean, searchable, and correctly organized spec sections.
Note: At this time, Submittals extraction is currently supported for CSI-format specifications only.
Note: If you want more of an overview of the Specifications tab in Fieldwire, check out this article: Introduction to the Specifications Tab
Supported DOT specifications
Fieldwire supports DOT specifications from:
- All 50 U.S. state Departments of Transportation
- Federal DOT specifications, including FP-24 used on Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) projects and other federally funded infrastructure work (such as projects on national parks or federal lands)
Each state publishes and maintains its own DOT spec book, and all projects within that state typically reference the same set of specifications. Fieldwire’s spec detection is designed to handle these variations while following common DOT formatting patterns. For each state's specifications, check out this website: https://highways.dot.gov/federal-lands/specs/state-specifications
IMPORTANT: Support within Fieldwire depends on the edition/year of the spec book. If your state publishes a new edition and results degrade, the edition may not be supported yet.
What this means for your project
If you upload a DOT-format specification book, Fieldwire can now:
- Automatically suggest how to split the spec book into individual sections
- Propose section numbers and titles for each DOT spec section
- Identify first and last page ranges for each section
- Send the results through the same review and confirmation workflow used for CSI and CAWS specs
This significantly reduces the manual effort required to upload DOT spec books.
Uploading and reviewing DOT specs
Uploading DOT specs follows the same workflow as other specification formats:
- Upload the DOT spec book in the Specifications tab.
- Fieldwire automatically detects that the document uses a DOT format.
- Suggested sections, numbers, titles, and page ranges are generated.
- You review and confirm the results before Fieldwire splits the document into individual sections.
Note: DOT specs will always go through the review step. You’ll be asked to confirm the detected sections before they are finalized.
How Fieldwire detects and splits DOT spec books
- We detect state + edition/year from title pages (when possible)
- We route to a DOT extractor
- If we can’t identify a supported edition, results may be less accurate
- If accuracy is low, please contact support@fieldwire.com
Common DOT issues & how to fix them
DOT specification books vary more widely than CSI and CAWS specs, and states update their DOT spec books on different schedules (sometimes yearly, sometimes every few years). Because of this, you may occasionally see unexpected results when uploading a DOT-format document. Below are the most common issues and how to resolve them.
Fieldwire detects the wrong DOT edition or state
What happens:
Sometimes the title pages don’t match an expected edition (for example, the project uploaded a scan, a repackaged PDF, or a modified copy rather than the official DOT download). When this occurs, Fieldwire may:
- Detect the wrong year
- Fall back to a generic DOT pattern
- Misidentify the state
What you can do:
- Make sure you are uploading the official DOT PDF directly from the state’s DOT website (not a scan, photocopy, or contractor-modified version).
- Check the title pages: they should include a clear edition name, year, and/or release date.
- If the PDF looks correct but detection is still wrong, contact Fieldwire Support and include the PDF so we can evaluate support for that edition.
Sections split incorrectly even though Fieldwire detected your DOT format
What happens:
Some DOT spec books change their internal layout, typography, or header structure between editions. Small formatting changes like shifted page headers, OCR artifacts, or updated numbering can cause sections to start or end in unexpected places.
What you can do:
- Upload the official PDF (not an OCR scan) whenever possible.
- Confirm that the headers in your edition match the state’s current official format.
- During the review step, adjust any incorrect section boundaries before confirming.
- If many sections are incorrect, contact Support with the edition year so we can evaluate adding support for that edition.
Missing or skipped sections
What happens:
If Fieldwire cannot confidently read a section’s header due to formatting changes or OCR issues, some sections may not be detected or may appear as a single combined section.
What you can do:
- Verify the header on the first page of each section is clean text (you can highlight it)
- Re-upload the official PDF rather than an OCR’d or photocopied version
- Use the review tool to manually add any missing section boundaries
- Contact Support if many sections are missing as this may indicate a new DOT edition
Wrong page ranges for sections
What happens:
DOT spec book layouts vary widely. If title pages shift, borders move, or a PDF includes extra cover pages, Fieldwire may identify the start or end of a section incorrectly.
What you can do:
- Remove extra cover sheets or inserts before uploading (if not needed)
- Verify section start pages during the review step
- For newer DOT editions, send the file to Support so we can validate detection accuracy
Submittals not extracted from DOT specs
IMPORTANT: Submittals extraction is only supported for CSI-format specs. It is not supported for DOT or CAWS.
If you expected submittals from a DOT spec, this is normal. DOT submittals must be managed manually.
The edition is supported, but extraction accuracy is low
What happens:
DOT formats evolve frequently. A small change (layout, numbering, OCR cleanup, or even a margin change) in a newer edition may reduce accuracy.
What you can do:
- Confirm you are using the exact edition that your DOT publishes (not a contractor-modified one)
- Check for a newer edition on the state DOT website. If your project uses a very recent release, Fieldwire may not support it yet
- Contact Support with the PDF and edition year so the product team can evaluate adding support for that edition