] [Thread] [Date] [Author]

["Polhemus, Bill" <wlpolhemus(--nospam--at)sbinfra.com>]

Actually, the large "engineer-contractors" are noted for "design/build".
It's ALL they do.

Please remember that I'm in Houston, the headquarters of many of the big EPC
(Engineering, Procurement and Construction) firms.

The way I always think of it is: They bid on and win large construction
projects, and they throw the engineering in for free.

That is if you want to CALL it engineering (at least from the structural
engineering standpoint). I worked for two such, and their idea of
"structural engineering" is "make it so big you don't even have to do
calculations to know it works!" The facilities for which this engineering
"design" is done are typically HUGE income producers. Therefore, the last
thing they worry about is whether the structure is economical or not.

What THEY want is for the construction to proceed ON or AHEAD OF schedule,
so that switch can be pushed, and the process started, and the money begin
to roll in. Everything else is of lesser--even negligible--importance,
including the cost of actually building the thing.

In all honesty, although I learned a bit about construction, I actually had
to UNLEARN many of the "lessons" that I learned working in that arena for
eight years. It is NOT a good place for the typical structural engineer to
learn his craft, in my opinion.

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Higgins [mailto:JillHiggins(--nospam--at)compuserve.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2000 4:33 PM
To: INTERNET:seaint(--nospam--at)seaint.org
Subject: Re: Mailing List for Marketing Structural EngineeringServices?

Indeed, Bechtel seldom does large
engineering only contracts. They are always in conjunction with the
construction and/or management. Fair game in my book.