I'm welding on a new-build hospital n St. Louis, Missouri, (Barnes-Jewish), and I've come across something that looks like either the engineer or draftsman didn't know what they were doing when they designed\drew it. The interior column splices have a squared (non beveled) lower column top, which have flanges 2" thick. The upper columns are double-beveled on both flanges and web on their bottoms. There is no space left for an open root, and the upper column is actually heavy enough to leave the point of contact rounded, with almost a quarter inch contact at all places of contact. We're having to weld the insides of the flanges like a momen connection, then air arc the weld out from the front face, actually making the outer (now single bevel) opening much larger in the process. I've only seen single bevel connections, some flanges up to 4" thick with 6" caps on the finished horizontal welds, 24" across. This leaves the inside of the flange to be back-gouged and a pass or two to be welded on the inside of the flanges. From what I've found in a couple of my books, the single and double bevel connections like this should be welded as open root. Do you think these column splices should have been shimmed open for an open root? This seems like an awful lot of extra work for the hundreds of welds we're going to have like this. (One 12 story and one 14 story with splices every two floors) I think somebody screwed up somewhere. These connections have the standard bolt up 'ears' for setting the iron, which are cut off after welds are secured. Any comments on this type of thing? Thanks,  Butch