Oversight and Inspection Services

Our Comprehensive Services

Construction Inspection

The owner’s construction inspection team plays a critical role in capital projects. The engineering and contracts teams work hard to create detailed construction drawings, specifications, and contract requirements for the project. It is important to ensure the requirements in these documents are followed by the construction contractors throughout the execution of their work. Providing this assurance results in a quality installation and improves schedule certainty for your project.

If a lumpsum or unit rate contract is chosen by the owner, the drawings, specifications, and contract requirements all increase the construction contractors’ cost, which incentivizes the contractors to not follow these requirements. This can be countered by an effective owner’s inspection team. SGI’s inspection teams have a proven history of enforcing the owner’s requirements while building and nurturing a positive relationship with the contractors.

The owner’s requirements often cannot be checked after construction is complete (as an example the use of proper welding temperatures to complete a quality weld), as a result, an onsite team is required to ensure corners are not cut and the owner fully receives the quality that they paid for.

Construction Management

A key component to efficiently construct a project is planning for construction during front-end development. Front-end construction planning is one of the most effective cost-reduction exercises that can be performed in capital projects. SGI’s experienced construction managers provide front-end construction strategy and planning expertise to the owner from their first day on the project, drastically improving constructability and lowering capital costs.

The construction management team also plays a critical role in the development of the contract, particularly the scope of work and construction specification schedules. The owner’s counterparties to their construction contracts have sophisticated and specialized construction managers who actively look for holes within the contract to maximize their profit. A key exercise to ensure your project remains on budget is to address these contract holes so that they do not become change orders during execution. The foresight to identify these contract holes primarily comes from SGI’s construction managers. Ensure your contracts are reviewed by SGI’s experienced construction managers to reduce your future change orders significantly.

Once construction starts, the owner will need an SGI Construction Manager on their side to ensure their contractual rights are upheld and the owner receives the quality they paid for. Further, the SGI Construction Manager will ensure that change orders submitted by the construction contractors are countered with factual information needed to reject or reduce the change order amounts. Without a detailed understanding of the construction process by an SGI construction manager, the construction contractor’s change orders will not be effectively disputed – this costs the owner significantly more during construction.

Project Management

SGI Projects offers project management services that ensure your capital projects are developed and defined correctly, our team then ensures the project is executed efficiently and effectively.

The success of a capital project is largely determined during the initial phases, project development. There are various key decisions that will set your project up for success or steer it towards failure. SGI’s experienced project managers offer foresight that captures the opportunities and steers our clients away from potential failures. The statistics on capital project failures show that many failures are common across capital projects; without experienced guidance, a project will inevitably experience these common failures. The time and effort spent upfront to plan and optimize your capital project will pay for itself many times over. SGI Projects will provide this expertise and set your project on the right track, from the beginning.

Once the project is properly developed, the focus shifts to scope and execution planning. This planning effort should not be completed solely by the owner’s engineering firm, as their incentives are not entirely aligned with the owners. If completed by the engineering contractor, the project will be planned and executed to optimize the engineering contractor’s bottom line. The owner requires independent representation that works solely in their interest to counter their contractors’ inherent incentives. SGI Projects is your representative.

A crucial part of protecting your capital investment is optimizing your contracts. These contracts will determine how your money is spent throughout the execution of the project. If your contracts are not correctly developed, the costs, schedule, and quality will not meet your expectations. Construction Management and Project Management input into our client’s contracts is the backbone of our service offering. A minor change to your contract by SGI can have a significant impact on your success.

After the contracts are executed, they must be enforced to ensure the owner’s interests are upheld during project execution. The counterparties’ representatives to owner’s contracts will be experienced high-performing individuals. They will complete extensive reviews of your contracts and investigate how to maximize their profits based on these contracts. The primary way they increase their profit margin is through change orders based on holes found in the contract. The owner will receive challenging change orders from their counterparties. When SGI Projects serves as your representative, we can counter these claims with an equivalently experienced and high-performing team that understands construction execution and contracts. SGI Projects has a successful history of finding fair resolutions to change orders while representing the owner’s interest.

Contract Development

Proper contract development is fundamental to a successful project. The contract determines who pays for each aspect of the project. It is exceedingly difficult to include the scope and execution methodologies that the owner wants in a contract. Each error in contract development could result in a costly and unexpected change order from your contractors. To properly develop your contract, SGI Projects provides the following:

An experienced Project Manager who has received many change orders and understands the typical holes that are present in typical engineering and construction contracts.
An experienced Construction Manager who has received many change orders and understands the typical construction holes in a contract. In addition, the Construction Manager will tailor your contract to your construction execution strategy, ensuring the bespoke aspects of your project are included and will not result in extra costs.
Legal Counsel can be provided through one of SGI’s preferred law firms. Alternatively, SGI can work with your internal legal counsel to form your contracts.
SGI’s contract development support will reduce the number of change orders our clients would otherwise receive. A well-written contract ensures your contractors will be able to price your job correctly, which is key to developing a positive relationship with them throughout execution.

An experienced Project Manager who has received many change orders and understands the typical holes that are present in typical engineering and construction contracts.
An experienced Construction Manager who has received many change orders and understands the typical construction holes in a contract. In addition, the Construction Manager will tailor your contract to your construction execution strategy, ensuring the bespoke aspects of your project are included and will not result in extra costs.
Legal Counsel can be provided through one of SGI’s preferred law firms. Alternatively, SGI can work with your internal legal counsel to form your contracts.
SGI’s contract development support will reduce the number of change orders our clients would otherwise receive. A well-written contract ensures your contractors will be able to price your job correctly, which is key to developing a positive relationship with them throughout execution.

SGI’s contract development support will reduce the number of change orders our clients would otherwise receive. A well-written contract ensures your contractors will be able to price your job correctly, which is key to developing a positive relationship with them throughout execution.

Design Development Oversight

SGI Projects offers quality assurance for your design development. Since the engineering contractor is seldom responsible for the construction of the project, it becomes highly beneficial for the owner to check the engineering contractor’s work. This ensures that engineering errors do not result in costly change orders from your construction contractors. SGI has a long history of finding and resolving engineering errors with the engineering contractor before construction starts, resulting in substantial savings and a predictable project schedule for the owner.

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