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29 transportation agency are mutually aligned to defeat the claims of the plaintiff, the parties, and ultimately the courts, will look to the policy and con- tract language to determine the rights of the parties as to the defense and indemnification. While the courts tend to construe exclusions and exceptions to coverage against the carrier, clear and unambiguous provisions will be given their plain meaning and a transportation agency that failed to review an insur- ance policy to ascertain the extent of its coverage may find itself without coverage. While the trans- portation agency at that point still has remedies such as withholding payment from the contractor or removing the contractor from its approved list, it may nevertheless pay millions of dollars in satisfac- tion of a settlement or judgment. Based upon the survey results and agency inter- views, the observations contained in this paper were made. The teamâs observations include regular review, by counsel, of contract specifications and language and of each certificate of insurance, endorsement, and policy prior to the issuance of the Notice to Proceed. A careful review of the documentation will diminish the possibility of later litigation between the transporta- tion agency and the contractor, if it is discovered that the coverage identified in the certificate of insurance is not the coverage actually provided in the policy. When a review is done early in the process, it is easy for the transportation agency to simply request an addendum to the coverage and bring the policy into compliance with an addendum. Because a state transportation agency can be held responsible for the actions of its road and bridge construction contractors while they work on state roads, the agency must be protected from the risk of liability and responsibility for the contractorâs actions. The most certain way for the state to avoid the risks of liability is to ensure that appropriate insurance coverage is in place before the contractor begins working. APPENDICES The resources found in the Appendices section of this digest were developed for agency contract administrators. Several of the documents used as appendices were submitted by the states with their survey responses. The appendices include docu- ments to be used by the contractor affirming appro- priate coverage, checklists for the agency, sample letters to contractors, and definitions of commonly used terms.
