Role of Consultants in Construction Industry 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 the high morale
• Leadership skills to convince clients with the data
• Excellent language skills to have a conversation in a foreign language with clients in overseas countries.
• Maintaining sanctity by not accepting any amount of commissions in the delivery materials.

Need for a  Construction consultant:

The necessity of a consultant in the very early of the project cannot be by-passed as serious errors are prone to occur. In case the site is purchased for the construction of a building but soil analysis proved the site is unsuitable for loads of buildings and needs a 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 that arises when a person needs and opinion regarding a technical engineering problem from an expert civil engineering consultant. This may be requiring a 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 of engineering calculations and whereas some consultants may also require a paid visit to the site and inspect the structure and the types of equipment over the construction site. Consultants also need to review the reports and investigation prepared by the client’s management and engineers.

Feasibility reports

These reports play a crucial role in determining the feasibility of the project after obtaining the results of the survey and engineering studies performed over the site. These reports are also necessary in order to confirm the engineering solution adopted to confirm 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 the blueprint. These blueprints are supplemented 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 the bill of quantizes to initiate the construction process.

The role of a consultant in construction projects is to assist the clients with choosing the best contractor best for the project or also in case of the purchase of materials. Procurement is 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 the 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

The 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 advise 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!