The Relevance of Special Inspections Construction project s

The Relevance of \"Special Inspections\"
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Construction project success is largely attained through the use of special inspectors. The special inspector provides oversight in areas of the construction process requiring special knowledge and experience. The requirement to have a special inspector on site is mandated by code for specifically name construction categories. A jurisdiction may also mandate the use of special inspectors as may the project owner, contractor or the design professional.

-Why is it important for the owner and contractor to understand the importance of the special inspector?

.-Please comment on the role and application of the special inspector to construction quality control and possible ramifications to the overall project schedule.

-What happens when the special inspector does not do their job at the construction site?

Solution

Question 1–: Why is it important for the owner and contractor to understand the importance of special inspector?

Answers:1

Special Inspections are performed by Special Inspectors of registered Special Inspection Agencies.Special Inspectors plays a critical role during the construction of many types of buildings or projects.

There are two good reasons why is it important for the owner and contractor to understand the importance of special inspector?

1- Owner and contractor will know in advance what the problems are?

2- Owner and contractor can get specialist advice about any major problems and how they will affect the project over time.

According to the New York City Department of Buildings (NYC DOB), Special Inspections are necessary during the construction process to verify that work is being performed in accordance with approved plans and specifications. If any owner has not hired any inspection inspector for their construction project, then the owner may face legal action against him/her. Construction site also may be shut down. So, for owners, it is very important to hire a special inspector for their construction project.

In addition, Special Inspections must be conducted by Special Inspectors on behalf of registered Special Inspection Agencies. So, Special Inspectors are very important to start any construction project.one of the most important point is Owners must hire Special Inspectors from inspection agencies directly. The agency which provides special inspector cannot be hired by the contractor.

One advantage of considering special inspector for inspection is that if the construction project is certified and inspected by the special inspector can provide the buyer with greater confidence.

Question 2–: Please comment on the role and application of the special inspector to construction quality control and possible ramifications to overall project schedule?

Answer -:2

The Special Inspector is employed by the fee owner, but the Special Inspector is only responsible to the local enforcement agency (i.e., local municipality or building department). The Special Inspector may not serve as a surrogate in carrying out the responsibilities of the building official and the contractor’s contractual or statutory obligations are not relieved by any action of the Special Inspector. The engineer of record for a project may act as the Special Inspector, provided they are on the list of persons qualified as Special Inspectors.

The Special Inspector should inspect all accessible parts of the project. These include the following areas:

The Special Inspector must, upon completion of the building and prior to the issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy for the building, file a signed and sealed statement with the enforcement agency in substantially the following form like: “To the best of my knowledge and belief, the construction of all load bearing components described in the Threshold Inspection Plan complies with the permitted documents, and the specialty shoring design professional engineer has ascertained that the shoring and re-shoring conforms with the shoring and re-shoring plans submitted to the enforcement agency.”

So what then, is the role of a Special Inspector on a project? Simply stated, it is to inspect only those structural members at the frequency and/or scheduled milestones as set forth in the Inspection Plan. The speciality engineer does not in any way assume the roles or responsibilities of either the building inspector or a third-party inspector who have different, distinct, and clearly defined roles of inspections for a project. Similarly, the role of the Special Inspector is unrelated and independent from the role of the Engineer-of-Record for the project.

The Special Inspector’s role is not as a full-time inspector; they only inspect at the frequency and for those structural elements listed in the Threshold Inspection Guidelines. Since the contractor maintains and is responsible for the project’s construction schedule, it is the contractor who schedules the inspections for the Special Inspector on a project or building.

If any project or building have not passed the perimeters after inspected by inspector then there are some possible ramifications to overall project schedule-

a) Overbudgeted
b) Poor quality - Customer dissatisfaction
c) Schedule failure
d) Lost business
e) Low team morale

Question 3–: What happens when the special inspector does not do their job at the construction site?

Answer -:3

If any special inspector does not do their job at the construction site. Then special inspector may face very serious issues and legal actions also. If the special inspector receives payment from the contractor, the special inspector can be legally charged with “fee splitting”. Where he is providing his engineering services to the Owner through an unlicensed entity (i.e. the contractor). The contractor can also be charged with the illegal practice of engineering because he or his firm is not authorized to provide engineering services in the state yet he entered into a contract with the owner to provide such as part of his scope of work.

If a special inspector does not take his job seriously it may cause huge disaster to project like for any Nuclear project or sprinkler and fire protection systems in any building.

If Owner is dissatisfied with any aspect of the report provided by a special inspector, he/she can show that the consultant was negligent in doing the inspection and can take legal action against them.