1.07.2024
There are several aspects that investors and developers should be aware of when it comes to geotechnical and structural monitoring services or monitoring the behavior of constructions over time. With the support of Sixense Romania, we have put up a useful guide:
- Firstly, an excellent knowledge of legislation is required. Monitoring the construction behavior over time is absolutely mandatory, and the geotechnical and structural monitoring program is based on the technical project elaborated by the designer.
- The monitoring activity should be planned from the feasibility and pre-feasibility stage. Already in the analysis phase, it is important to have all the information so that there are no surprises later on and no one is forced to „resolve” the situation on a minimal budget. If the monitoring activity is done just to be checked off, it is useless and does not really tell you anything about the health of the building.
- When receiving and comparing offers, it is extremely important to compare them correctly. Of course, price is important, but equally important are: the real experience of the team that will be your partner in this regard, the expertise of its members, the focus on monitoring activity (and not on other add-on services), the interest with which they come to the table (beware of those who act only as intermediaries or equipment resellers, when the purpose of monitoring is by no means the sale of equipment), proof of compliance with certain quality standards, and especially certification as an authorized laboratory for construction analysis and tests.
- Especially when talking about large-scale real estate projects, with critical structural and geotechnical risks, the recommendation for the developer is to contract directly the monitoring services – to a single specialized partner, with vast similar experience. Why? Because transparency and objectivity are needed from a third party, who can confirm the correctness of design hypotheses without other interferences. Also, the developer needs to have direct control over the quality level of the monitoring services delivered.
- In the case of urban constructions, in areas with many neighboring constructions, it is recommended to also consider monitoring the influence zone. We recommend that, before starting excavation works, there should be an information campaign for the owners whose constructions are in the influence zone, to explain the benefits of monitoring works, to conduct a technical inspection or a survey of existing structural and non-structural defects in neighboring constructions, and to instrument constructions according to identified risks. Only in this way will we have the complete picture and all the data to help us protect the neighboring constructions, avoid difficult discussions about the existence of a certain impact on neighboring buildings, complaints to control authorities, site shutdowns etc.
- The monitoring program should not just be checked off, done from the office, without any connection to reality or copy-pasted from other projects. It needs to be adapted to what is happening on the ground and absolutely necessary to be implementable, and provide correct, transparent data, based on which crucial decisions can be made.
- As explained before, the monitoring activity should be done in execution, as well as in the operation phase. So it is important to implement a monitoring program on the long run, in order to make sure that you extend the total lifespan of a building.
All the above aspects should be taken into account when choosing a partner for monitoring the behavior of constructions over time in the real estate industry.