On-site Engineer/Inspector 6

[squir999]

Hi everyone. A client of mine is doing a project for an owner, and the owner wants my client to have an engineer on site full time for the duration of the project. (18-24 months). This person would be responsible for double checking materials and watching other inspectors (there are piles/pile caps, soil compaction, backfilling around a concrete culvert etc). There will be 3rd parties doing the testing, but the owner wants someone on site to "make sure that what is designed is what gets installed and that all the testing is done to specs". My client thinks that this person would really only be busy on the project 10-15% of the time and could work on other billable work while on site and not busy with site work. He asked me how much he should budget for something like this. My thought process was: Assuming a bill rate of $250 per hour, a year would be roughly $520,000.00. Also assuming this person would be local and no per diem or housing would be required, then maybe we could knock that down to around $320,000 per year (a bit more than half) since full time on a site would severely constrain the person's ability to do site visits for other projects, and if it's a solo person firm, they might have to hire an assistant/junior engineer to help with their other work, and increase their E&O insurance etc.

Do you guys think this is in the ballpark? And, if he ended up having to get a far away firm to send an engineer, that would increase the cost by per diem plus housing rate, right?

I want to make sure I am giving him a realistic number.

 

[ctopher]

For that salary I would do it. Unfortunately other project would have to be on hold if I had to sit around on this job site.
I have never heard of an engineer being at a site full time.

Chris, CSWP
SolidWorks
ctophers home

 

[dold]

At my firm most of our larger projects have full time on-site engineer(s). We do a lot of civil work which requires a lot of field engineering to deal with existing conditions. Plus, most of our specifications (as provided by certain federal government entities) require that we have a representative there full time. And by full time I mean we are there any time any contractor is on site, no exceptions. Pretty much every single section of our specs say "such works hall be performed in X manner, or as directed by the engineer". We also do all testing and inspection - soils/compaction, grade checks, concrete testing, asphalt testing and inspection, etc. We bill at full rate, and our engineering fees are very healthy.

That said, this is the only firm I've worked at that provides this service.

 

[hokie66]

I once did a job similar to this for about 30 months, and it was fulfilling, both professionally and financially for me. As it was in another country, I had to relocate my family. I negotiated a salary about twice my normal, and with all expenses paid. Not sure what the company charged the client.