Page 140 - Civil Engineering Project Management, Fourth Edition

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Starting the construction work
11.5 Some early tasks for the resident engineer
At the end of the first week the resident engineer will no doubt find that he
already has a number of tasks to do. If bulk excavation is about to start it will be
essential to take levels of the natural ground over the site where the excavation
is to take place, if these levels are not already available in sufficient detail. This
is urgent work, for there will be no chance later of finding what the natural
ground levels were and the calculations for quantities of excavation would then
be largely ‘intelligent guesswork’ or agreement will have to be sought on bill
quantities, which may differ from the true quantity excavated. If the contractor
has taken his own levels over the site and the resident engineer has let pass the
opportunity of checking them, he will be in no position to argue against the
contractor’s figure for the excavation.
It may not be sufficient to rely on ground levels shown on the contract draw-
ings because these may be based on interpolation of published contoured maps
of the area. Where such contours originate from aerial photography they can be
a metre in error because they may reflect the top of vegetation rather than the
soil level.
Another early task is to carry out and agree with the contractor the state of
existing buildings which might be affected by construction of the contract works,
and the state of approach roads to the site. This is essential so that any claims
for compensation for damage can be decided properly. In this survey sets of
photographs of existing cracks or damage, as well as general views, form an
important part.
The resident engineer must see that all productive top-soil is stripped and
stacked separately for later re-use. All amounts of soil should be so stacked,
even that taken off areas for the site offices, since there is often a lack of soil
at the end of the job. The question of disposal of excavated material will have
to be considered. In many countries there is now increasing control over what
materials may be disposed of to landfill and these need to be borne in mind
when agreeing with the contractor what to do with unwanted excavated
materials.
The next task the resident engineer may need to do, if he has not done it
already, is to check the delivery times for any equipment or materials to be sup-
plied under other contracts or by the employer, such as the supply of pipes and
valves. On overseas jobs there may be many separate contracts for the supply
of materials. All these separate supply contracts have to be checked in detail
to ensure that nothing has been missed.

11.6 Meeting the employer

Shortly after his arrival on site the resident engineer should see if the employer
wishes to meet him and will set aside a morning or afternoon for going over