Civil Engineering Archives - Page 5 of 5

4 Risk Management Webinars for Design Professionals in 2013

By Lynda

In 2013, Professional Liability insurance provider Victor O. Schinnerer will host independent subject-matter experts for four webinars, all geared toward Architects, Engineers, and other Design Professionals:

Employment Liability Issues in a Recovering Economy

February 13, 2013, 1:00 – 2:00 pm eastern

Thomas L. McCally, Esq., Carr Maloney, P.C., Washington, DC

Design firms face various types of employment liability issues during the normal course of business. However, the downturn and subsequent recovery of the economy have brought these issues to the forefront of concerns for design firms. An attorney expert in litigating design firm employment practices claims will discuss the issues firms need to recognize as the economy improves and firms prepare to staff-up for the recovery.

Business Models and Financial Opportunities in a Recovering Economy

April 10, 2013, 1:00 – 2:00 pm eastern

Michael O’Brien, ASA, Rusk, O’Brien, Gido + Partners, Washington, DC

From funding sources to procurement procedures, the financial environment for professional services has significantly changed since the pre-recession economy. Both in the public and private sectors, the rules, risks, and routes to financial success are different. Professional services firms need to adjust their business plans to remain viable and to benefit from the opportunities in a recovering economy. Specializing in solving the business management and ownership challenges of consulting firms, our expert will share thoughts on the needs and responses of firms in the new service environment.

Technology Risks for Design Professionals

September 11, 2013, 1:00 – 2:00 pm eastern

David J. Shannon, Esq., Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman, Goggin, Philadelphia, PA

Technology risks associated with the business operations and professional services of design professionals is not new. However, the increased use of building information technologies and collaborative delivery methods, such as integrated project delivery, may increase the exposure of firms to traditional technology risks, as well as introduce new risks. Join our discussion with an attorney expert in technology risks to learn what exposures design firms need to be aware of and how to manage those exposures.

Insurance and Legal Questions for the Collaborative Design Team

October 9, 2013, 1:00 – 2:00 pm eastern

Rebecca H. Farnum, Esq., Thompson & Bowie, LLP, Portland, ME

Building information modeling and integrated project delivery provide a platform through which all members of the design and construction team collaborate. As with all new technologies and delivery methods, there are important questions the collaborating team should ask to identify and respond to legal and insurance issues in the open transfer of information in a contractual arrangement of shared risk and reward. Our expert will discuss what types of questions the team should ask before formally entering a collaborative agreement.

Visit our website to download the full PDF version of the 2013 Victor O. Schinnerer webinar schedule.

100 Years of Zurich

By Lynda

A treat for Architects, Engineers, and roller coaster enthusiasts alike.

In 2012, Zurich Insurance celebrated their 100th anniversary. A century spent insuring people, places, and things has given the company a fascinating historical perspective, from covering one of the rides at the Chicago World’s Fair to utilizing special training to help employees handle the first computers.

Visit 100 Years Insuring America, Zurich’s special anniversary web feature, to explore the last century through the eyes of one of the country’s leading insurance companies. Check out cool black and white photos, old advertisements, and a timeline organized by decade.

“Zurich first brought its knowledge and experience in workers’ compensation insurance from Switzerland to America in 1912 to help its customers take intelligent risks.” Today, “Zurich employs about 60,000 people serving customers in more than 170 countries.” Read more about Zurich at their website.

Learn more about Zurich’s insurance program for Design Professionals here. And if you have any questions or if you’re interested in obtaining a quote from Zurich, contact your local a/e ProNet broker today!

Expanding Employment Liability Risks for Design Firms

By Lynda

It’s true. The insurance industry has a reputation for bringing doom and gloom to an otherwise cheery outlook. Forgive us. Our business relies on our being able to spot negative trends in advance so that we can assist our clients in preparing for the worst. That doesn’t mean we don’t also hope for the best! Economic recovery is still ongoing, and we are thrilled that this means our architect and engineer clients are working and growing again.

That’s why, in our May 2012 post, To Hire or Not to Hire?, we mentioned some of the considerations and concerns facing design firms as they take on work that “could require additional hands,” including the need for accurate Professional Liability limits on their insurance policies… just a little worth-thinking-about-in-advance gloom.

Then this week, leading Professional Liability insurance provider, Victor O. Schinnerer, released its most recent Risk Management Guidelines, including an item on the Expanding Employment Liability Risks of recovering architecture and engineering firms.

“As firms downsized to face an economic downturn and restructured due to changing technology and new project delivery systems that required altered business models, employment practices claims rose. Add to that the challenges presented by the new generation of employees—many of whom consider their lives and the operations of their employers as public information, and a number of whom find the workplace to be a forum for their opinions—who are flooding the market during difficult economic times, and by returning military who must be accommodated in their former civilian positions or given preferential treatment, and firms are faced with a demanding and confusing employment perspective as they begin to staff up.”

Continue reading “Expanding Employment Liability Risks for Design Firms”

Getting Paid For Design Services

By Lynda

The last few years have been challenging for many design firms. Adding fuel to this fire, many firms are having difficulty obtaining payment for their services. In a recent and ongoing SmartRisk Survey: 81% indicated trouble with getting paid. Successful account receivable programs do not have to be time consuming or daunting. By implementing some straightforward practices, a firm can implement an effective program that gets invoices paid on time along with maintaining a positive relationship with clients.

Establishing Financial Expectations. In an initial meeting with clients, explain in a clear and concise manner exactly what your services will be and the value you bring to the project, along with clearly stating your compensation terms. Your communication should be clear in establishing the financial expectations with the client. At this face-to-face meeting, you will obtain a sense of the client’s financial capability and ability to pay for your services. If you don’t get that warm and fuzzy financial feeling, this is the time to walk away.

Contract Agreement. The boundaries discussed at the initial meeting should be outlined in the contract agreement. Include a specific scope of services for the project, associated fees, expenses and cost of additional services. In basic terms, the agreement should explicitly state your client owes you money for services you will be rendering. The agreement should also specify the terms of payment, including any payment in advance of services. Continue reading “Getting Paid For Design Services”

Blog Love: Schinnerer’s RM Blog

By Lynda

Time to return some Blog Love!

We are big fans of Victor O. Schinnerer’s Risk Management Blog. Several times a month, this long-standing professional liability insurance provider posts brief, timely, helpful articles that are relevant to the design industry. The emphasis is on risk management for design firms, and posts often include links back to pertinent studies and claims scenarios.

A few recent posts:

Building Reuse Provides Environmental Value — 27 August

“Earlier this year the National Trust for Historic Preservation released a report by its Preservation Green Lab that provides the most comprehensive analysis yet of the potential environmental benefits of retrofitting the existing building stock. The study, The Greenest Building: Quantifying the Environmental Value of Building Reuse is available from the organization’s PreservationNation.org/Sustainability website.

“The report concludes that when comparing buildings of equivalent size and function, building reuse almost always offers environmental savings over demotion and new construction. The report states that it can take between 10 and 80 years for a new energy-efficient building to overcome, through efficient operations, the climate change impacts created by its constriction. For the majority of building types in different climates, the study points to 20 to 30 years of use to offset the initial carbon impacts from construction. The study recognizes that the environmental benefits of reuse are maximized when a minimum of new materials are used; renovation projects that require many new materials can reduce or even negate the benefits of reuse.” Continue reading… Continue reading “Blog Love: Schinnerer’s RM Blog”

Integrated Project Delivery: Changing the Insurance Landscape

By Lynda

With more project owners demanding the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM), project delivery is necessarily carried out through greater contributions of design input by the general contractor and the major trade subcontractors. The design professionals are no longer the sole authors of the project design. This collaborative project delivery method has been called integrated project delivery (IPD). The contribution of design input from each of the various project players using IPD is a significant break from the traditional division of responsibility recognized in the standard design-bid-build project delivery method. Players who never participated in the project design now face potential risk of professional liability. Additionally, the new, cutting-edge technologies being used for BIM expand the types of risks born by the design professional if there are errors and omissions within the computer modeling system or the improper management of the computerized data.

What is BIM?

BIM involves computerized design software tools that help create a model that reflects all of the building components’ geometric and functional qualities. The general contractor and trade subcontractors provide product-specific information for building components and that data is inputted into the model, including performance specifications, connection details and cost data. However, the model is more than a mere representation of the design in a three-dimensional computer graphic. Embedded within the design programs are rules that define each of the components’ relation to the other components. Continue reading “Integrated Project Delivery: Changing the Insurance Landscape”

Sheep, Voldemort, Paul McCartney & Civil Engineers: London’s Opening Ceremonies

By Lynda

Pretty cool that the hardhat-wearing men and women who designed and built the infrastructure of the thirtieth Olympic games received a shout-out last night during the opening ceremonies. They deserved some applause! Just ask ICE president Richard Coackley:

Olympic Stadium - London 2012 Olympics: Who will light the torch at the Opening Ceremony?

Photo: AFP

“Our day-to-day lives depend on the infrastructure around us that is designed, built and maintained by civil engineers – from roads, railways and bridges to energy, water and waste networks. It forms the backbone of society and the economy. But unfortunately it is often only when things go wrong that the work of civil engineers is thrust into the media spotlight.

“The London 2012 Games have changed this – showcasing and celebrating the work of these often ‘unsung heroes’ while at the same time helping the public understand more about what civil engineers do and what a diverse and exciting career it is.

“If anything could excite and inspire young people to pursue civil engineering as a career it’s the Olympic and Paralympic Games – a true feat of engineering in every sense.”

— ICE president Richard Coackley —

Read the rest of London Olympics 2012: Opening ceremony to ‘reinvigorate careers in engineering’ in The Telegraph.

Some Civil Engineering Optimism in Napa, CA

By Lynda

ProNet Client Project Profile

Who else is sick of hearing about the world’s crippling recession? The last couple of years have been especially tough on the construction industry, as well as on the various industries surrounding it. But design professionals are eager to see the light at the end of this thoroughly designed, planned, surveyed, engineered, and constructed tunnel.

So here’s some light! a/e ProNet client Chaudhary & Associates, a California civil engineering firm that’s determined to grow through and out of this tough time, received a glowing mention in the North Bay Business Journal last week. The following is an excerpt from the NBBJ article:

Napa-based civil engineering, surveying and construction inspection services firm Chaudhary & Associates (www.chaudhary.com) is bouncing back from the huge slowdown in private construction projects in the past few years, thanks to big public works projects rolling forward, according to President Arvin Chaudhary.

The firm currently employs 25, up from about 15 a year and a half ago and 49 at the peak of construction activity. In May, the firm moved to 211 Gateway Dr. W., in a same-sized office — 7,200 square feet — for about half the rent.

Targets for more business are a contract in Merced County that could call for four or five more employees and pieces of the $1.5 billion first and followup contracts for the planned California high-speed train project. Design-bid contractor proposals are due this fall for work next year. The company has been involved in major public works projects such as the Bay Bridge retrofit.

Yet with the state government fiscal crisis, Department of Transportation contracts for construction inspection and other services increasingly are less fruitful than anticipated, Mr. Chaudhary said. Overstaffing at Caltrans is resulting in retraining efforts and less of a need for consultants to fill roles on projects, as staff designers have been moving into field inspections, a role firms such as Chaudhary would handle.

The worry in civil engineering is that this move of Caltrans designers into the field will lead to a dearth of projects moving to construction in a few years, Mr. Chaudhary said. Continue reading “Some Civil Engineering Optimism in Napa, CA”