#My_Perspective on the role of a structural engineer in the desi Construction market.

- April 10, 2022

I am a practicing Structural engineer for the past two years. And before pursuing master’s, I have experience in execution as a site engineer. I am writing this article to share my perspective on the desi construction market as a Structural engineer. I invite your thoughts and comments on the below article.

Why structural engineering is important in every aspect of any civil engineering project.

House or shelter is a basic need for all individuals. Be it the lower class people or the richest person in the world, each one has their dream house in their mind. In order to make it true, they go to architects or local civil engineers for architectural design – what is simply referred to as a ‘plan’. Once the plan is done the next step is to make sure whether the design that architects have given will work or not, will stand or not. Whether the idea can be true or not. But this is not considered by most people. They just ignore structural engineers’ observations or consultations to save a little money and directly go-to contractors. This is especially for small or medium-range houses or buildings. Common people believe that the contractor or ‘mistry’ knows everything.

No offense to contractors; some very good contractors do good work, based on their long experience and technical knowledge. However, usually, the mason/ local contractor/ mistry decides based on the typical project he/she has done in the past, and the chances of under design or overdesign are high.

I am going to list out some points that the contractor may miss when not incorporating the structural engineer’s inputs.

All technical codal requirements may not be followed.

Non-consideration of lateral loads, such as earthquake and wind load.

Poor methodology to counter various loads, like the case of the water tank in the middle of a slab.

Long-term effects such as the development of cracks, solution to the cracks.

Types of cement to be used for various types of activities at the site. For instance, the cement type to avoid future damage such as corrosion of steel.

Effect of various partition walls on the slab.

Knowledge of soil, or consulting geotechnical engineers.

The exact location of holes for services in the structural elements to avoid future casualties.

There are three main divisions in the process for any construction project: (1) design and development, (2) contracts and procurement, and (3) execution and project management. In lower-scale projects architectural design is done by architects, the other two steps are done by local contractors, or all three steps are done by local contractors. It’s true that with experience knowledge can be gained. But when you have a fever will you consider doctors’ advice or a well-experienced nurse’s advice? Once again I think it is your call to choose. In a similar way, structural engineers have spent a total of 6 years understanding the behaviors of buildings or structures, and several years practicing it. Structural engineers are like doctors of building or structures; they have spent restless nights understanding the concepts.

Before ending this article, I want to mention the four main points and then you can decide whether you need a structural engineer’s advice or not.

A structural engineer is like a backbone whose contribution is important.

Inputs from structural engineers in the design process will help in optimizing not just in monetary terms but also in terms of the quality of the product.