FOUNDATION DESIGNS

Foundation designs

We all do agree that foundations are the bedrock of any construction or building project be it a small house and large complex structures like underground rail lines , tunnels , airports , Harbours and bridges.

A large condominium project was being built in six phases, spread out over several years. For Phases I through III the soils engineer gave the recommendation that the foundation was to be of certain a drilled pier type, and that the piers should be 4 feet deep.
When construction of Phase IV started, he again recommended 6 feet deep piers. Later, during construction of Phases V and VI, the structural engineer went back to 4 feet piers. All the buildings in all six phases were of the same design, based on the same soils report. The soils were similar in all Phases. Was the structural engineer negligent in not carrying forward the soils engineer's Phase IV recommendations?

Management and control of information is part of diligent engineering practice. It was argued that the structural engineer's failure to carry forward the revised soils engineering parameters represented an error inconsistent with the standard of care.
Major engineering failures are often cited in engineering education as archetypes of engineers' negligence.

Professional Engineers have a duty of care to provide their services in a manner consistent with the "standard of care" of their profession which they practice.
Any time it comes to the attention of a professional that there is a mistake in his drawings or calculation, he or she should accept them in good fate and make changes before it reaches the point of he or she being sued.

The story is told of a professional land surveyor who did not set the property corners at the right location on a property.
After a neighbor to the property who had lived there for his entire life had informed him of the mistake to his survey drawings and where he had set the corner markers , he said and I quote “We shall cross the Bridge when we get there” meaning when the time comes we will solve the matter.


He refused to listen to very vital evidence and he was later sued and had to pay for a very heavy sum. If he had listened and corrected the error he would not have found himself in that situation.
The fact that an engineer makes a mistake that causes injury or damage is not sufficient to lead to professional liability on the part of the engineer.

In order for there to be professional liability, it must be proven the services were professionally negligent, that is, they fell beneath the standard of care of the profession. When one hires an engineer, one accepts the risk, and the liability, of that professional making a mistake similar to mistakes other normally competent engineers make, using reasonable diligence and their best judgment.

Some errors are bound to happen but like I said we should not wait as professional engineers and land surveyors before the harm is done.
We should be able to save the situation as soon we told before you are held liable for a stupid mistake which could have been corrected.

In performing professional services for our clients, Engineers (structural engineer) has the duty to have that degree of learning and skill ordinarily possessed by reputable (structural engineers), practicing in the same or similar locality and under similar circumstances.
The question of a structural engineer's performance relative to the standard of care arises when errors are made, or when there is a failure of a constructed facility to achieve its intended safety, durability, serviceability or utility.

Posted by Benjamin Yaw Atsem.


References:

Joshua B. Kardon, SE
“The Structural Engineer's Standard of Care”
http://www.onlineethics.diamax.com/CMS/profpractice/ppessays/standard_of_care.aspx#section3


"Suspended Engineer's Lesson: Never Wait Until It Is Too Late." Engineering News Record, page 12, June 24, 1996.