My husband often travels the back roads between Chapel Hill and Fuquay Varina to visit friends. En route (a circuitous route that goes past Sharon Harris Nuclear Power Plant, among other places), he passes by the “Friendly Grocery”. For those who haven’t had the pleasure, here is a photo of the side of the building […]
Eventually, most construction lawsuits of any size involve hiring experts to review the project. These experts then usually issue an opinion as to whether or not you, as the design professional, violated the professional standard of care for architects or engineers working on a similar project in a similar community. If the case proceeds to trial, all sides will […]
Engineers who design in earthquake-prone areas know that they need to design the seismic loads of their bridges to account for potential massive shifts during a quake. (This is what is legally known as the professional standard of care, which takes into account what similar engineers, in the same conditions and community, would consider acceptable design)**. The […]
In North Carolina, as in 39 other states, there is no special certification for structural engineers. As structural engineering becomes more complex, is specialized certification an idea whose time has come? “Increasingly, structural engineers, architects and construction firms work together at the earliest stages of a project,” says Jon Schmidt, Associate Structural Engineer and Director […]
As I and others have said on this blog many times, contracts are extremely important in the construction world. Deciding what contract terms you want, deal breakers, and which terms you can live with, is more of an art than a science. Two upcoming FREE webinars deal with contract issues for design professionals: First up, Traveler’s Insurance […]