Construction firms are among the primary driving forces behind the growth of economies on the continent and around the world. Their services are spread evenly in all levels of the construction industry, from building town flats to large airports. Their resources focus mainly on the actual construction and material handling. In executing these tasks, contractors will hire consulting engineers who avail them the following services in all or select phases of their projects.
Execution
Clients will often approach a contractor with a bare profile of their intended project. The detailed particulars necessary to make it conform to physical engineering constraints are left to the contractor to figure out. For example, a house owner doesn't specify to the contractor the kind of concrete mix to be used for foundations, the thickness of the walls on the uppermost floor or the kind of foundation suitable for the locality; the contractor seeks such pertinent advice from consulting engineers.
Supervision
The integrity of finished products depends on sound design. The actual construction should be undertaken with step by step and meticulous interpretation of the technical information in blueprints. A consulting engineer is hired to be on site at all times to ensure that workers adhere to measurements and procedures specified by architects in the blue prints. In so doing, the engineer prepares documentation to which they attach validation signatures for every stage of the project. In the residential building sector, local authorities may need to see these documents before approving units for tenement.
Technology
As building technologies keeps evolving every year, consulting engineers make the effort to familiarize themselves with new trends and innovations in the wider market. They may contribute to such developments through collaborating with research entities. As such, a building contractor seeking to raise the standards of his work will consult them on how to integrate new industry standards with the existing equipment, or how to best make total transition from old to new standards.
Reports and recommendations
Unforeseen problem issues will often crop up even when all the requirements in the building manuals and blueprints are adhered to. An example is land subsidence under an ongoing road project causing cracks on the surface. Such may require timely custom intervention measures demanding deep engineering expertise. As a measure to ensure prevention and early detection of such negative developments, the contractor will retain consulting engineers on site. These professionals will make periodic scientific assessments of the project and compile detailed reports entailing expert recommendations. These are then presented to project managers.
A contractor may also employ an in-house engineer, thus obviate the need to engage consulting engineers.
