certification services vary markedly depending upon the specific intent of the certification and the context of the project. at this time there is no broadly accepted industry guidance nor reference for the requirements of certification for maritime infrastructure in australia.
thus the intent of the certification is generally described within the certificate itself. Sureside then certifies its observations that fit within its scope of services.
an important consideration for clients to make is to plan for certification and to understand its own risk appetite in regard to construction. a professional shall not certify based upon observations it cannot or has not made. certification shall be made based upon available evidence. generally, available evidence comprises observations whilst on site and certificates provided by a contractor on a construction project. often, a certificate shall state that:
inspections were undertaken at the following dates at the following times and were based upon the following observations..
some certifications are based upon a design review and comprise an approval ‘gate’ for design to progress to the next stage. this is considered good practice for organisations that deliver complex projects and which do not necessarily have sufficient internal technical knowledge to review a design.
most certifications sureside is requested to undertake involve certification of assets post-construction. this may be done for projects that are both designed and not designed by sureside. Generally the certificate refers to artefacts that describe the design intent, generally a current ‘for construction’ set of drawings and specifications. commonly there are changes to the design in the construction phase that may be captured in the ‘for construction’ set of documentation, depending upon a client’s construction phase monitoring processes.
the certificate shall normally make a factual account of observations on site against the referenced artefacts.
for consruction phases, the effectiveness of the certification is tied to the monitoring effort undertaken during construction. this in turn is tied to investment in monitoring effort and the systems and contractual requirements in place to facilitate monitoring (i.e. hold points).
Engineers in victoria are now required to be registered in order to practice in engineering design. for maritime engineering, structural engineering is the relevant field for practitioners to registered under.
Projects where sureside have provided certification projects are presented below. click on the links to find out more.
