ABSTRACT
All civil engineering projects have owners – otherwise known as the client or the employer, because the owner ultimately pays for all the works and employs the various parties involved in design and construction. The owner normally engages architectural and engineering companies to advise him and to manage, design and construct the project in a cost-effective manner. Most projects are designed by a consulting engineer and built by a contractor. Under such ‘engineer’s designs’ the design responsibility rests with the project designer. Other projects are described as ‘turnkey’ or ‘design and build’, where a contractor is commissioned to deliver the whole project or part of a project as a complete package. Such arrangements – ‘contractor’s design’ – often apply to specialist parts of projects such as a bored tunnel or piled foundations for a building. The typical relationships and tasks for a project designed by a consulting engineer are illustrated in Figure 2.1. Sometimes the owner may have in-house technical expertise suffi-
cient to overview the project (as in a government department or large energy company) but rarely will he have the staff or experience to design, construct and/or supervise all aspects of a large civil engineering project, which might require a huge range of skills – from site formation through numerical analysis to mechanical and electrical fitting out.
