Except as otherwise provided in NRS 338.1711 to 338.173, inclusive, and 408.3875 to 408.3888, inclusive:

1. The State of Nevada or any of its political subdivisions, including a county, city or town, shall not engage in any public work requiring the practice of professional engineering or land surveying, unless the maps, plans, specifications, reports and estimates have been prepared by, and the work executed under the supervision of, a professional engineer, professional land surveyor or registered architect.

2. The provisions of this section do not:

(a) Apply to any public work wherein the expenditure for the complete project of which the work is a part does not exceed $35,000.

(b) Include any maintenance work undertaken by the State of Nevada or its political subdivisions.

(c) Authorize a professional engineer, registered architect or professional land surveyor to practice in violation of any of the provisions of this chapter or chapter 623 of NRS.

(d) Require the services of an architect registered pursuant to the provisions of chapter 623 of NRS for the erection of buildings or structures manufactured in an industrial plant, if those buildings or structures meet the requirements of local building codes of the jurisdiction in which they are being erected.

3. The selection of a professional engineer, professional land surveyor or registered architect to perform services pursuant to subsection 1 must be made on the basis of the competence and qualifications of the engineer, land surveyor or architect for the type of services to be performed and not on the basis of competitive fees. If, after selection of the engineer, land surveyor or architect, an agreement upon a fair and reasonable fee cannot be reached with him or her, the public agency may terminate negotiations and select another engineer, land surveyor or architect. Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, in assigning the relative weight to each factor for selecting a professional engineer, professional land surveyor or registered architect pursuant to this subsection, the public agency shall assign, without limitation, a relative weight of 5 percent to the possession of a certificate of eligibility to receive a preference when competing for public works. If any federal statute or regulation precludes the granting of federal assistance or reduces the amount of that assistance for a particular public work because of the provisions of this subsection relating to a preference when competing for public works, those provisions of this subsection do not apply insofar as their application would preclude or reduce federal assistance for that public work.

[12a:198:1919; added 1947, 797; A 1949, 639; 1943 NCL § 2875.06a] — (NRS A 1967, 953; 1971, 774; 1973, 1700; 1975, 208; 1977, 320; 1983, 807; 1989, 788; 1997, 1055; 1999, 3489; 2001, 2022; 2003, 119; 2011, 3707)