According to a recent article in Last Word, the American Council of Engineering Companies’ newsletter, consulting engineers are moving more into construction management (CM). According to the organization’s 2001 Business Trends Survey of 587 firms, CM ranked as one of the top three disciplines in 21% of the responding engineering firms. In fact, the study revealed engineering clients in both the public and private sectors prefer more full-service capabilities. They want one source of responsibility for a project’s management, and see engineers as the key for bringing the project components together successfully.

In addition, the study indicated that engineers perceive construction management services as a top-tier discipline—respondents including CM in their top three fields increased from 15.8% in 2000 to 21.5% in 2001. The percentage of survey respondents who included these disciplines among their top three fields of practice include:

  • Civil—65

  • Surveying—29

  • Structural—26

  • Environmental—24

  • Construction management—21

  • Planning—18

  • Mechanical—17

  • Electrical—17

  • Geotechnical—9

  • Architectural—9

  • Program management—5

“We believe construction management will continue to increase as a desired engineering service,” says ACEC President Dave Raymond.