The prime contract decides
Who owns RFIs and change orders on a construction project?
The law gives a document to whoever wrote it, or their employer. The prime contract can then give the project owner rights in it, and on federal work it usually does.
The starting point
A US transfer of copyright is not valid unless it is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed, and a UK assignment is not effective unless it is in writing signed by or on behalf of the assignor. Nothing passes to the owner by default; a signed contract term is needed.
Source: 17 U.S.C. 204, transfers of copyright ownership
Change orders on federal work
Under FAR 52.243-4 the contracting officer may make changes by written order designated as a change order, and the contractor must assert its right to an adjustment within 30 days of receiving one. The order is the government's; the contractor's pricing and correspondence around it are records the audit clauses let the government examine.
Source: FAR 52.243-4, Changes
Special works
Where FAR 52.227-17 is in the contract, the government takes unlimited rights in all data delivered and first produced, and the contractor may not assert copyright in data first produced without the contracting officer's prior written permission. A builder holding records from such a job should treat them as not its own to license.
Source: FAR 52.227-17, Rights in Data, Special Works
Private work
On private jobs the AIA A201 general conditions and ConsensusDocs 200 are the common forms; their own product pages describe the documents but do not print the clauses, so the signed copy in the job file is the one to read. Our table sets every provision we read side by side.