Page 116 - Civil Engineering Project Management, Fourth Edition

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The resident engineer’s duties
need to go carefully at first so that he ‘can get the measure’ of the man who
can daily affect the contract work. He will want to know what special matters
are the concern of the RE and how he will wish to handle liaison between
them. In like manner, the RE will be waiting to observe how competent the
agent is and what degree of trust can be placed upon him, in order to find out
what degree of supervisory control will have to be exercised.
The agent will want the RE to be fair, reasonable, and understanding. He
will want clear decisive instructions from the RE, and prompt answers to his
requests for information. He will want information and instructions about
some work well before he starts on it; not after, or when he is part way through.
He will object to an RE who is too keen on interfering in matters that should
properly be handled by the contractor, or who makes contact with his sub-
contractors without the express permission of the contractor beforehand. He
will expect all the RE’s directions to be given only to him – except in cases
justified by emergency.
This does not affect traditional practices adopted for contact between the
RE’s staff and the contractor’s staff, such as when the RE’s inspectors contact
the agent’s section foremen.
If the RE has any complaints, the agent will wish to be told about them per-
sonally. The RE should never make a complaint initially by letter. Such a letter
will seem unfair to the agent, because a letter puts a complaint ‘on record’
before the agent has any chance to show the complaint is misplaced.
An especial nuisance to the agent is an RE who is too meticulous and rigid
in his views – who thinks it necessary to measure up every cubic yard of con-
crete to the third decimal place; or who insists that every word in the specifica-
tion must be exactly and rigidly complied with, irrespective of the need to
apply such conditions in every case. To make reasonable judgements that are
accepted as fair by both the contractor and the engineer, should be the princi-
pal aim of every RE.

9.8 Handling troubles

There will be times when troubles arise; such as when bad workmanship comes
to light, or quite unsuitable methods are being used. It is the RE’s duty to have
the work rectified or the unsuitable methods stopped. This is easy to say, but not
so easy to carry out in practice. The first requirement is that bad workmanship
ought to be discovered at the earliest possible stage. The second is to be careful
when having to point out defective work. Accusations are out of place; most
defective work occurs through mishap, lapse of control, or because someone
has been set to do a job beyond his competence. Nor should the RE start his
complaint with some provocative remark which causes resentment and an
inevitable row.
Instead, the RE should ask the agent to view the defective work with
him, indicating that he has concerns about its acceptability. When they meet