ENG Form 6282 is the SSHO designation letter. Under the 15 March 2024 edition of EM 385-1-1 it is mandatory, it is required for all levels of onsite SSHO, and the government has to accept it before work is conducted. It did not appear in the 30 November 2014 edition at all, which is why it catches out contractors working from an older checklist and consultants who have not re-read the manual.
It is the simplest compliance step on the whole subject and the one most likely to delay a start, because it sits in the gap between award and mobilisation where nobody owns the schedule.
What the form does
A designation letter is how a contractor names, in writing, the employee who will oversee and ensure the prime contractor's safety and occupational health programme at the project site. Being qualified as an SSHO and being designated as one are two different things, and only the second lets work begin.
Who signs, who accepts
- Two signatures on the form. The corporate safety official and the SSHO being designated. Not the project manager alone, and not the SSHO alone.
- Submitted to the contracting officer or the contracting officer's representative.
- Accepted by the government. Submission is not acceptance, and the requirement is acceptance.
- Work must not be conducted until it is accepted.
- The accepted copy is kept at the site of work. Not at the corporate office, not in a cloud folder somebody has to be asked for.
- A new or additional SSHO means a new designation letter. Every time.
The three traps. First, treating submission as the finish line — the clock runs until the KO or COR accepts, and that is not in your control, so submit early. Second, forgetting that an alternate or additional SSHO needs their own letter, which bites when your primary goes on leave and the cover has no accepted designation. Third, replacing an SSHO mid-contract and carrying on under the old letter.
How to keep it from delaying a start
- Start it at award, not at mobilisation. The form needs the corporate safety official's signature and a named, qualified individual. Both take longer to assemble than people plan for, especially if the named person is still being recruited.
- Have the qualification evidence ready to go with it. OSHA 30-hour card, the documented experience against the ten-year window, and the training hours over the past five years. If the government asks and you have to go and find it, you have added days.
- Check the level against the contract. A letter designating a Level 2 where the contract requires a full-time Level 1 is a rejected letter. Check too whether an exception under 2-8.b(3) was written into the contract documents.
- Designate the cover at the same time. An alternate Level 1 meets the contract-required level and carries the same roles and responsibilities, and needs their own accepted letter. Doing both at once costs nothing extra now and saves a stoppage later. See who covers when your SSHO leaves site.
- Put the accepted copy on site on day one and keep it there for the life of the job.
Where to get the form
ENG Form 6282 is a USACE form and is distributed by the Corps through its own publications and forms channels; your contracting officer or COR is the right first ask, because they will also tell you how they want it submitted and what else they expect with it. Acceptance practice is theirs, not ours — do not take a template from a third party and assume it will be accepted in place of the current form.
Sourced from USACE EM 385-1-1, edition of 15 March 2024 (which supersedes the 30 November 2014 edition) — paragraph 2-2.x for the SSHO levels, 2-3.b for training and experience, 2-4.b for roles and responsibilities, and 2-8.b for designation and site requirements. Reviewed 2026-10-02. The designation letter requirement is at 2-8.b(1).