As manager of construction services at Woolpert LLP, one of my routine tasks is explaining to clients why they're better off with the up front investment in construction observation services. The client has invested in first-quality plans. Engineers or architects have drawn detailed plans and specifications to ensure that the client gets just what he or she needs. It would be absolutely superb if the engineer or architect could feed these plans and specifications into a construction machine and the project would automatically be complete and right. But it doesn't work that way.
Construction has a human element just as the design stage did.
But if a problem shows up in the design stage, the engineer or architect just goes back to the drawing board, fine tuning until the plans and specs are just right. When problems turn up in the construction phase, they're more likely to be buried in concrete or hidden in the walls. Let's look at some recent examples. An Ohio school official assigned to inspect construction of a new school visited the job site while concrete was being placed for the floor slab. The school official measured and discovered that the slab was only 3 inches thick, not 5 inches as specified - an invitation to costly cracks once the building is in use.