This is a guest post by Mike Johnston
Civil engineering is a discipline many people are not really familiar with. This is a real shame since civil engineering impacts our society so much. Namely, it comprises various professions, including structural, geotechnical, environmental, water resources, construction management, and transportation engineers.
One particularly interesting area is quantity surveying, a profession that blends engineering, construction, and economics. The emphasis is on the last part, albeit there are many other tasks that these experts perform.
Word up
To avoid any confusion, let us just provide a quick clarification of terminology.
Those who live in Canada or the US might have heard the term construction cost estimator. On the other hand, a quantity surveyor is widely used in countries like UK and Australia. The roles of the two are more or less similar depending on the region. For instance, a construction cost estimator in the US is equivalent to a quantity surveyor in the UK, even though there are some extra requirements for each one.
Sometimes, the terms cost managers and cost consultants get thrown around. But, in this article, we are going to use only quantity surveyor, though in a broader sense that transcends local and project-to-project differences.
In episode 055 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I talk with Kevin O’Beirne, P.E. about working with changes, claims, and disputes on construction projects. O’Beirne gives some excellent tips in the this episode which will help engineers to acquire a greater success rate with regards to construction projects.