What is a Consulting Civil Engineer?

A consulting engineer or construction consultant can be termed as the one who is completely independent and professional engineer and performs well detailed engineering services to his client on an agreed sum of money. The prerequisites of a consulting engineer are that he has to be registered in the state or the country resides to perform as a Professional Engineer.

The segment of services offered by a consulting engineer not only render to a specific profile as they also include with the general practice. The consulting engineer must be remain unbiased with the recommendation laid by him and should be devoid of any influence.

Qualities of consultants:-

A consulting engineer along with his expertise field has various other qualities which enhance the work quality over the field. Some of which are expressed below:

• A good amount of brushed up knowledge of business and finances procedures.

• Human relations and team spirit to keep up high morale

• Leadership skills to convince clients with the data

• Excellent language skills to have conversation in foreign language with client’s in overseas country.

• Maintaining sanctity by not accepting any amount of commissions in the delivery materials.

Need of a  Construction consultant:-

The necessity of consultant in the very early of the project cannot be by-passed as serious errors are prone to occur. In case as the site is purchased for the construction of a building but soil analysis proved the site is unsuitable for the loads of building and needs special type of foundation. The excess of money spent over special foundation could have been easily retained in case a consultant had been hired before the purchase of site.

Roles of a construction consultant:-

Consultation

Consultation is the situation which arise when a person needs and an opinion regarding a technical engineering problem from an expert civil engineering consultant. This may be requiring varied amount of time depending upon the critical nature of the problem. The duration of consultation may be brief or may be extended to some duration or may require considerable travel to the site.

Investigation of Problem

The construction consultant needs to study the problem over the field which might involve some amount engineering calculations and where as some consultants may also require pay visit to the site and inspect the structure and the equipments over the construction site. Consultants also need to review the reports and investigation prepared by client’s management an engineers.

Feasibility reports

These reports play a crucial role in determining the feasibility of the project after obtain the results of survey and engineering studies performed over the site. These reports are also necessary in order to confirm the engineering solution adopted to confirm with the economic feasibility of the structure. The aspects considered in the feasibility report are the requirements and the special needs of the project, estimated construction cost, alternate solution and expert recommendation and conclusions.

Engineering design

This aspect includes the dimensions and physical characteristics of the structure to be constructed. The dimensions of the structure are presented in the form of drawing which in laymen terms are refereed as blueprint. These blueprint are supplemented with along with written documents, commonly known as specifications.

Plans and specifications are curatively studied by consultant in order to direct the contractor regarding the work expected from him. The design process is also helpful in preparing the list of the materials to be procured often known as bill of quantizes to initiate the construction process.

If you are looking for the best consultants in construction I refer you to GRS (Global Resource Solutions).

The role of consultant in construction projects is to assist the clients with choosing the best contractor best for the project or also in case of purchase of materials. Procurement is the the crucial process in which consultant usually accepts receipts of proposals from one or many materials suppliers and selection is made on the basis of quality of material and economical feasibility.

Bids are solicited from the manufacturers and contractors through public notices along with plans, specifications, bids and contract documents in accordance with the legal documents. As the bids and renders are opened publically, the consulting civil engineer recommends the best contractor according to bids posted to the client.

Construction Supervision

Consultant has to keep a keen eye over the construction which is primarily bifurcated into two parts as of general supervision and resident supervision:

General supervision

1. Timely and periodic visit to the site

2. Consultation and guidance to client/owner

3. Interpretation plan drawings and specification

4. Checking the authenticity of drawing and data provided

5. Processing and estimating contractor progress and further payments

6. Guiding in amendments to contractors contract

7. Final inspection and validation of project

8. Preparation of “as-built’ drawings

 Resident supervision

1. This aspect of supervision requires the consulting engineer to send a representative or an engineer to the site of the project.

2. The resident engineer over the site takes care of detailed inspection of the structure being constructed as per specifications and plans.

Legal services

Consultants play a vital role as an expert in the court proceeding and advises the client and lawyers on engineering related matters.
We hope now you are aware of the Role of Construction consultants in project management. Happy Learning!
Also Read:-
Valuation of Building | Types of Valuation
 

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