Refree

Can please rephrase the question? What do you mean by refree? I believe you are asking what are the responsiblities of the civil engineer to the contractor. If this is the case it will be in the contract. Contract as well as specification are legal issues. You may need to get legal council to help you.

Issues regarding construction contracts are governed by the information provided in the "Contract" which includes the "specifications, drawings, any changes authorized under the contract language, and the methods for resolving differences between the above mentioned articles. " As the Contract is a Legally Binding Agreement between the Parties who agree to be made a part of said document, "Disagreements are often settled by negotiations between the parties". If that does not resolve the matter, it may be solved by the parties agreeing to incorporate a Mediator to resolve the issues! If that doesn't work, then there is the Court, and it will issue a binding ruling regarding the matter. LIKE IT OR NOT!

Toomuchfun

Hello Guest,

Normal Contracts have the Architect as a "Referee".

The Architect (paid for by the Client {owner}), acts as Mediator between the Contractor and the Client.

Although the Architect is paid directly by the Client (Owner), the professional requirements are that the Architect remain independent.

Small Civil Works normally have an on-site "Clerk of Works", who acts as a Referee between the Client, Architect, Contractor, Subcontractors - A real test of integrity, and a "meat in the sandwich" job.

Large Civil Contracts generally have Architects, Engineers, Consultants in various areas: Electrical, Civil, Mechanical Services etc. as Referees.

In all Contracts, the area of Responsibility is (or should be) carefully spelled out.

It is extremely important not to get out of the area of one's Legal Responsibility during the course of a Contract.

This can easily happen, if a person gives oral or particularly written advice to others, and the Contract has a problem, at which time that advice may have been acted upon, or claimed to have been acted upon.

Lawyers, Law Companies, Judges and others often end up with large bank accounts, at the expense of persons who have given unwise advice during a Contract.

Kind Regards....

Hello Sparkstation, Your posting is quite correct as far as the basics are concerned. however I have been accepted as an expert witness in several legal proceedings regarding construction contracts in which I had no financial investment. Unfortunately, all to often the owners are looking for the lowest bid, more so than a best qualified bid by a worthy contractor. And often the specifications are poorly created and the drawings woefully incomplete, and conflicts between both are the norm where the owner selects the lowest proposal for the Architectual and Engineering services. I have bid many such projects, and was the winning bidder for some of them. I always came out making at least some money. That is except for the few that bankrupted before the projects were completed. I have even declined to bid numerous projects because the owners, "County Govt.s" developed reputations of using the Contractors to price their work and then not letting the contract to the winning bidder. Unfortunately, not everyone plays by the honorable rules. I don't have a lot of good things to say about the Mediators, Lawyers, and most Judges, but alas that is where the Contractor often has to go to get paid for his work. I am a "retired Building Contractor", I know the ropes.

Kindest regards,

TMF

Hello Toomuchfun

I understand exactly your situation.

All too often, the only honourable person in the situation, appears to be oneself.

Kind Regards....

Typically, there is binding arbitration between the client and the contractor stipulated in the contracts, if not you may have to go to court. For public works contracts the engineer serves the Municipality. The contract has to seek restitution from the municipality if they feel there is something in the contract documents they agrred to that is inconsistent with the work they have been directed to do in the field. There should have been a field change order for such work before the contractor initiated the work, or in an emergency a verbal direction from the engineer that specifically and clearly stated to proceed with the additional work. Since all projects, at least in California, have a period during the bid process for submittal of questions regarding the plans, specifications and contract documents, and it is typically written into the bid documents that the contractor should read and fully undertsand the documents, it is understood that unless the contractor submits questions before bidding, he fully understands the documents and can construct the structure as designed. Now if the engineer has directed work that is clearly a change to the plans and specification, and not just authorized you to change some aspect of the project at your request, and the municipality does not want the change or authorize the extra cost, you could file a Civil suit against the Civil Engineer if he exceeded his authority in the contracts (this would be rare as most contracts designate the engineers authority as a representative of the municipality for such decisions). More often than not your best option is to institute a work slow down while involved in protracted negotiations over the subject, threaten to walk off the job, and/or garner public awareness and the attention of the press as municipal bureaucrats hate press attentions that they do not control.

Well done RCE, you have covered the bases at least as far as the Uniform Building Code goes. That covers a lot of the left coast and others who aspire to the rules of said code. I lived and worked under that code for a while, have an interesting tale to tell if anyone is interested. I have also worked under the Southern Building Code, which I personally find to be a better code, except where earth quakes are concerned. Here in Florida we have to consider the wind loads as a primary issue. I have found that in most contracts the A.I.A. documents are the preferred guiding light, and are accepted as primary where building construction is concerned, You are very correct about slowing down the work, but the contractor must be forceful in demanding additional time or additional funds to cover overtime pay for sub contractors. Better contract documents and specifications prevent these kinds of conflicts.

TMF