Professional Engineer Question List

Please answer all questions below. Questions marked with * are especially important for your Career
Episodes.

1. When you started working on this project and when you have finished (Month needed)

May 2015 to May 2016

2. Where is your Company located? (City, Country) What was your exact position?*
Delhi, India.
I was the Site Engineer on the “Emerald Bay” Project in Gurgaon.

3. Give Company background in a paragraph*

Puri Constructions is a reputed Real Estate Development Company in India’s NCR (National
Capital Region).
It started operations in 1971 and has today become a formidable player in the Realty sector.
It is respected for on-time deliveries & quality workmanship

4. Prepare/Explain complete hierarchy of your company clearly indicating your position*

MD
COO
GM (One GM for 2 Projects)
PM (Project)
Site Engineer (Part Site)
Supervisors

Detailed organizational chart is attached within the email

5. Detail your complete responsibilities. At least 5. Explain each responsibility in one paragraph*
- Bar Bending Schedules (BBS) & projection of steel requirement
The Reinforcement for incorporation in works had to be procured by my company. I was
responsible for preparing Bar Bending Schedules and project dia wise requirements for the
next month. This involved in-depth study of the structural drawings
- Execution of Structural Works
I was responsible for getting the work executed strictly on schedule and as per the stipulated
specifications. The nature of activities involved works related to execution of Pile
Foundations, RCC Structure (Using Aluminium S-Form shuttering), VDF/Tremix & IPS Flooring,
Block Masonry, External Rendering, Plumbing, Waterproofing of Sunken Areas, Terraces,
Retaining walls & UG/OH Tanks
- Checking/vetting of subcontractor bills
I was responsible for measurement and verification of works executed by contractors. This
also involved bill verification of the various petty contractors engaged directly by my
company. In case of any non-scheduled items, I used to give my inputs to facilitate analysis of
the item rates
- Ensuring the implementation of the Safety, Inspection & Test Plans
I had to ensure compliance of Safety and Inspection & Test plan requirements. These
included Checklists (pre & post), pour cards, plaster cards etc. Safety on site was accorded
 extreme importance. We were repeatedly reminded of the safety requirements on site
during the fortnightly tool box meetings on site. Often, senior staff from our Head office
would come to these meetings to deliver Brief Orientation Lectures on safety and quality
issues
- Finishing Works relating to the Sample Apartment (Showcase Apartment)
I had been given additional responsibility for execution of Finishing Works for the
Sample/Showcase Apartment on site. This was a very important task and I feel that I was
extremely fortunate to have been entrusted with this huge responsibility. Activities which
were executed were Aluminum and Glazing works, High quality Italian Marble floorings,
Textured wall coatings, High Quality Toilets/washrooms, Furnishing and Landscaping (soft &
hard).

6. Please explain two problematic situations where you played important role to solve the problem
systematically. How you applied your engineering knowledge to solve these issues?*
I had also been entrusted with finishing works for a tower which had already been built prior
to my joining the organization. Unfortunately, the structural work on the tower had not been
executed to desired levels of dimensional accuracy (especially with respect to verticality and
plumb). This resulted in various problems during finishing.
I) In the drawings the uPVC window frames on the façade were shown to be fixed in the
center of the 230mm masonry walls. A Stone strip was to be fixed on the exposed sill on
external side (as an elevation feature). However, when the level markers/pads were
fixed for external plaster it was found that the external walls were not in true plumb,
resulting in variations in thickness of the external plaster. This meant that the width of
sills & jambs of the window openings would vary from opening to opening.
If the window frames were placed in the center of the 230mm wide masonry, the
external sill’s stone width would not be uniform! Alternatively, if the frames were
placed in the center of finished wall (ie center of <internal plaster thickness> +
<masonry thickness 230mm> + <external plaster thickness>), there could be a
possibility of some of the frame fasteners getting anchored in plaster mortar in lieu of
masonry. This would reduce the strength/stability of the frame!
How I solved it:
I got the thickness of external plaster measured in all window openings on one building
face. Thereafter I identified the maximum thickness of external plaster. To this max
thickness I added 25mm (minimum offset of the frame fasteners from the masonry
edge). I froze this dimension as the distance of the window frame’s center from external
face of plaster. This resulted in uniform width of the exposed stone sills without any
possibility of frame screws anchoring into the weak plaster mortar! The process was
repeated for each face of the building.

II) The parapets of projecting balconies were supposed to have stone copings. The coping
edge was supposed to project 10mm beyond the plastered face of parapet. The balcony
projections were not in plumb/line. If the plaster on the projection portion was done in
true plumb, the coping width would vary by as much as 75mm! This would be highly
undesirable. The cost of getting all the balcony lines corrected would be extremely
expensive and time consuming.
How I solved it:
 The balconies were in blocks of 5 levels….ie the balcony line would change at every 6th
floor. Instead of standardizing coping width for all balconies on a face of the building, I
adopted a modular approach. I fixed the coping width dimension for each block of
balconies for 5 levels. The result was extremely satisfactory.

7. Did you design anything? Important to mention. At least two items. Give detail for each in
paragraph*
The apartments in Emerald Bay have expensive Marble flooring…Omani Beige. The marble
slabs which had been procured were in various sizes. This would result in huge wastages. I
designed a Floor Marble Design and Cutting Schedule keeping in mind the dimensions of the
rooms and the dimensions of the Omani Beige Marble. This resulted in extremely low % of
marble wastage on the project.

8. What Calculations you performed? Give detail (but not the calculations themselves)
Contractor Bills: Measurement of the works executed on site in line with IS 1200 of BIS (Bureau
of Indian Standards).
Rate Analysis of Non Scheduled Items: Despite best efforts in trying to include all items in the
BOQ prior to commencement of a project, Extra Items ie Non Scheduled Items do come up! I
had to prepare a rate analysis for such items as per DSR (Delhi Schedule of Rates)
Steel Reinforcement Calculations: Making of BBS (Bar Bending Schedules) and computation of
reinforcement steel.

9. Any training/courses you received during this job?

Senior staff from our Head office would come to the site meetings to deliver Brief Orientation
Lectures on safety and quality issues. This trained the staff in issues of site safety and in testing
of materials and works.

10. Did you follow any code/standard during your work?

We followed Indian Standard Codes (IS Codes). For instance:
IS 1200 – Methods of Measurement
IS 2502 - Code of practice for bending & fixing of bars for concrete reinforcement
IS 456 – Plain And Reinforced Concrete - Code Of Practice
IS 13920 – Seismic Detailing of RCC Structures (For the knowledge about anchorage lengths of
different elements of a building such as column to shear wall, Primary Beam to
secondary beam and column to beam.)

11. Did you take any knowledge/help from library/internet/colleagues etc. for doing this job?
Yes. I have taken help from my senior colleagues/internet and my father as he is an civil
engineer himself and belongs to the same industry.

12. What software you used to handle this job?*

AutoCAD

MS Office (esp MS Excel)

MS Projects
13. How frequently you have meetings with your subordinates and managers? Were you ever
involved in social activities like party arrangements etc.?
I had daily meetings with my subordinates and manger.
Meeting with the manager used to be every evening to review the day’s progress and micro-
plan next day’s work
Meeting with subordinates used to take place each morning before start of work

14. Have you made any economical/finance related decisions (such as how to reduce cost of the
project) during work on this project? *
I had scrutinized the contracts of the sub-contractor based on their bid price. After a
comprehensive calculation by estimating the work and assessing the cost- benefit analysis
results, I concluded that it was better to award the contract on the Lump sum (Fixed price)
basis in lieu of item rate to reduce the sub-contracting cost of the work and increase the
efficiency.
15. Had you made any presentation to your seniors etc.? *
As a site engineer, I had to present monthly progress reports to my general manger, which
incorporated the progress percent of each activity on the site & the Quality conformance
report of that month.

16. What you gained professionally while working on this project?

As the in charge of two G+30 floor high rise towers, which were built by a fast track
construction process by incorporating S- form formworks (imported from Korea), I got exposed
to a unique experience and thus developed the technical skills required to execute and inspect
those tasks. Furthermore, I also got a chance to learn about the building services such as
firefighting & plumbing services, which gave me an opportunity to broaden my skill set.

On the other hand, apart from developing technical skills, I was intensely guided and trained
by my seniors on how to manage labour and sub-contractors effectively. Thus, also enhanced
my management skills through this professional period.

17. Was there any safety/environmental effects or did you use any safety precautions while working
on this project?
As an engineer from the clients side, I was very strict about the compliance of the following
things on site:

Safety
 Personal protective equipment’s (Safety Shoes, gloves, masks) should always be worn.
 Harness/safety lines when working on Heights
 Bending of Jack Pins on the scaffoldings
 Proper Electrical Distribution system
 Barricading of Lift Pits
 Night Lighting was done effectively to avoid any accidents
 Dowel caps were used to cover the Dowels
Environment
 Water tank sprayed water to make the dust settle down every 2 hrs
 Loose building materials such as Fine sand was covered by Plastic sheets to avoid the
deposition of it in the neighborhood houses.
 Dewatering water was used for curing to enhance the sustainability aspect of the
project.
 Noise walls were constructed to ensure that noise penetration level is of low in degree.