For councils, NZTA and asset owners running an NZS 3910 contract, directly or through the consultancy that holds it. Based in Mount Maunganui and on site when it matters.
Someone running the contract on site under a written delegation from the Engineer, so the Engineer isn’t needed for every call that keeps the job moving.
In 2024 I ran 2 Tauranga City Council contracts at the same time, the Oceanbeach intersection and the Welcome Bay roundabout. Between them that was 140 notices to the contractor, 47 variations, 13 payment schedules and 4 extensions of time, with both jobs in construction through the same months.
On the $42.3M SH29 Ōmanawa Bridge Replacement for NZTA the role covers weekly and monthly reporting to NZTA, progress meetings, fortnightly risk reviews and the assessment of payment claims, variations and extensions of time.
The delegation should be in writing and the contractor should have a copy, so everyone knows what the ER can decide. When something is the Engineer’s call, I prepare it and put it to them. I don’t guess past the line. More on what can and can’t be delegated →
If a notice doesn’t say what’s required and why, the contractor can’t price or programme it and the argument just moves to later. When the Oceanbeach pavement came up 130 mm short of the existing levels with the kerbs pouring the next morning, the instruction set out the fix, classified it as a variation, said what records were needed to value it and opened the extension of time pathway, all in the same notice. What a notice has to carry →
Under NZS 3910 the role has to act fairly between the Principal and the contractor. In practice that means the reasoning has to hold up when the other side reads it. Sometimes it means telling the client something they’d rather not hear.
Decisions get questioned months after they’re made. So the records are kept the same way on a small job as a large one. Every decision says what it was based on.
NZTA requires the Engineer to the Contract and the Engineer’s Representative on its construction contracts to be accredited at the right level for the contract value. I hold NZTA Engineer to the Contract accreditation at Level 1, current to August 2030. An application for full Engineer’s Representative Level 2 was submitted in September 2026.
I work in NZTA’s systems day to day: Active Risk Manager, Schedule 17 cost fluctuation, the monthly dashboard and Z05 health and safety plan review.
Projects: SH29 Ōmanawa · Oceanbeach · Welcome Bay · Sulphur Point · Mahuta Road · Other appointments
A phone call is usually the quickest way to work out whether it’s a fit.