Architecture

1. Introduction.

Northlands rapidly increasing growth in population over the last few years has put huge pressure on the building industry. Many of the building companies and businesses simply cannot find enough staff in order to meet the demand from the ever increasing client base the region is seeing. Due to this, the demand for civil engineers in Northland is very high thus there are a large number of small privately owned companies set up in the area.

Richardson Stevens Consultants Ltd. is a privately owned company which is run by three directors. They specialise in structural engineering and their main cliental are a number of home building franchises. They employ structural engineers who have studied civil engineering at university and also draftsmen.

Working as an engineer for such a company gives the employee a whole understanding of how the company is run and managed, how problems are dealt with and the rewards of finishing major assignments on time and to a professional standard.

2. Company Structure / Products and Services

Richardson Stevens Consultants Ltd. (RSC) was founded in 1997, originally they had one director and employed three structural engineers and a draftsman. It now employs nine engineers, three draftsmen, two secretaries and is run by three directors. The company is based in Whangarei and their work comes from throughout the Northland region.

2.1 Products and Services

The majority of the work that RSC perform is structural engineering, however they also do a small amount of geotechnical engineering. As there is no specialist geotech engineer in the office, they have to hand on a lot of their work to offices such as Tonkin Taylor who do have geotechnical engineers.

The company does a lot of domestic work for home building franchises such as GJ Gardener homes and Golden homes. Typically this would involve a site investigation first to determine the ground conditions and then make calculations based on these conditions as to what foundations are required. The housing companies all have plans pre-drawn and they sell these to the client. However the clients always want to change something around a bit, so before the housing company can go ahead and build, they come to RSC who do structural calculations in order to determine if the change is ok.

RSC also do a lot of work with subdivisions. These involve the civil engineers in the office rather than the structural engineers. Before building consent can be granted to a sub-divider, RSC has to design the roading, sewer, storm-water and the surface drainage. These are all designed then drawn up by the draftsmen and sent in to the Whangarei District Council along with the building consent application.

Four years ago Richardson Stevens tendered for a ten year coastal maintenance contract in Northland. This is a large task which involves inspecting a huge number of coastal structures such as wharves, seawalls and boardwalks. These structures are all visually inspected once a year and any repairs or maintenance which needs doing is detailed and the Whangarei District Council is notified.

2.2 Technical Processes

From start to finish on any project that RSC works on, there are a large number of steps incorporating technical processes.

The very first step is consultation with the client. Here RSC learns what the job is and what the time frame is that they have to work with. A site visit and investigation is usually the next step. The work which is carried out on the site investigation is completely dependent upon what role RSC plays in the completion of the project.

For example, if it is structural calculations for some type of building including foundations, then the first stage is an investigation of the ground conditions. This may entail sub-soil testing, slope, and flooding conditions. The topography of the area is also looked at. This is done so that factors such as wind multipliers can be determined. Once all of these factors and conditions are known, calculations can be made in the office in compliance with the building codes such as NZS3604. These calculations are done to determine all foundation requirements, member sizes, bracing, roof systems etc. Before it can go any further the calculations are passed on to one of the directors in the company who read over them and can then sign them off. The calculations and details are then handed over to the draftsmen who draw up components such as joints and connections. They are then faxed back to the client who hands them on to the contractor.

In some cases the engineer is required to go back onto the site once building has begun or been competed in order to make sure that everything is being constructed as per what has been specified. The work can then be signed off by both the engineer and the contractor.

2.3 Departments

2.3.1 Design Department

For a large period of my employment with RSC, I was involved with the designing stage. This would involve structural calculations for things such as retaining walls, foundations, columns, beams, roof systems, walls and bracing. This was all done in accordance with today's building codes and standards. There were a total eight engineers working in this department. All of them had graduated from university with structural engineering degrees.

All the jobs would come into the office and be handed over to one of the directors who would be in charge of it. They would read over it and then hand it on to one of the engineers and give them a quick briefing about the project. The only equipment used in this department are a structural computer programmes.

2.3.2 Site Work Department

The remainder of my work with RSC was site investigation work. Everyone in the office would do a bit of site work at some stage but the majority of it was done by four civil engineers who had studied a diploma of civil engineering at a polytechnic institute. The main aspects of site work was ground testing.

The directors and the structural engineers would assign them work and brief them on it. The equipment used in this department were testing apparatuses such as shear vanes, scala penetrometers, smart levels, augers, levels, theodolites, spades and gum spears.

3. Staffing Issues and Management

3.1 Organisation Structure

Figure