How to select your team of civil engineering consultants
Posted on: 9 October 2019
If you are involved with planning, designing or managing any civil structure, such as a railway, road, bridge or even an airport, then you will need to work with civil engineers. You might have a civil engineer on your staff, or perhaps you will need to have access to a team of civil engineering consultants who you can call on to deal with queries and to ensure that the project is completed to the required specification.
Choosing the right civil engineering consultants
As with all types of engineers, the role of a civil engineer can vary widely. While the general principles of the role will always be the same, it is important to find an engineering team that has appropriate experience in projects similar to yours. If you are building an irrigation channel or a harbour, then choosing a team of civil engineering consultants who specialise in constructing railways or bridges may not be the best option. The more experience they have in schemes just like yours, the more confidence you can have that they will be able to complete your project without incident.
Meeting your civil engineering consultants
It's never helpful to immediately choose the first team of engineers you find since you have nothing to benchmark their replies against. Make a list of two or three firms that you could consider working with, and take the time to interview each of them to see how well they could fit into a role in your project. Their experience and technical skills will be important to assess, but don't forget to think about their personal skills as well. You could be working closely with them, so you will want to be assured that you can communicate easily with them and that they understand exactly what the objectives are for your project. The more comfortable you are talking with them before the project starts, the easier it will be to explain what is needed once the job is underway.
Working out the details
Having a good working relationship with your civil engineering consultants is vital, but that good relationship will only be maintained if everyone has the same expectations. Before you hire your engineering team, make sure that you have fully discussed their way of working and their methods of charging for their services, and that a detailed professional contract exists between you which sets out the expectations of each party. By being clear on every detail from the start, you can be certain that your building project will be completed on schedule and within the agreed budget.
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