Construction Site Office | My experience as an intern
Changing the working environment has always made me stronger against difficult working conditions. It has allowed me to experience a new personality of myself approaching unknown people from different environments and being friendly with them for a given task or a goal.
Similarly, stepping into a construction site office that was made using a container box was a different experience for me. Undoubtedly it is one of the little cravings of an undergraduate who is following an Engineering degree or a Quantity Surveying Degree. As a Trainee Quantity Surveyor, I had to work inside a construction site office for the first time in my life. Let me explain the things I learned to you.
I started my internship in Central Engineering Service LTD (CESL). My first project was the renovation project of the Courts Complex in Hultsdorf and it was aimed to renovate six blocks of court buildings that were 106 years old to preserve the architectural values of those buildings in a sequential process. Depending on the requirement there was only one site office when I joined the project.
Generally, site offices provide accommodation for site engineers, quantity surveyors and other professionals in the construction industry. Moreover, office space is provided for meetings and site documentation too. When it comes to managing the space inside the site office, the responsibility lies within the site staff and they have the freedom to arrange the space inside the site office effectively and efficiently. When it comes to our project, the site office we used provided sufficient space for four people at a given time. They were the site engineer, Engineering Assistant and the two Quantity Surveyors.
Moreover, adequate space was provided for contract documentation, and stationery items including the printers, scanners and computers. Since most construction sites do not possess healthy drinking water facilities, further arrangements were needed to use portable water cans and filters.
During the construction phase, the whiteboard in the picture was used as a dashboard for each day by displaying the number of available skilled labours and unskilled labours of subcontractors for that day. It was very helpful for the site staff to check the available human resources at the site by a glance towards the whiteboard.
Honestly, in the beginning, it was difficult to get used to the limited space inside the site office. You should be careful enough not to drop the files or the teacups to avoid unnecessary messes. Being a tall person more than six feet I could not enjoy spreading my arms inside the site office. I hope that gives you an idea of the width of the site office. However, eventually, I got used to it. I used to enjoy the small chit chats with the Quantity Surveyor during my free time. The birthday celebrations made it more enjoyable and due to the small number of people working inside a site office, the bond was stronger among them.
Usually, site offices contain these essential items such as a first aid kit, accident book, instruction forms, Health & Safety Policy books & project-related construction documentation including the detailed drawings and the working drawings. However, in the Sri Lankan context, chances are higher that the working environments in site offices become more casual than being formal. The organisational culture plays a major role in such circumstances.
Finally, it is important to decide on the type of site office container, the required number of site offices, the placement of the doors and windows of those site offices at an initial stage considering the effectiveness and efficiency. Having site offices coloured in white colour allows consuming less energy under extreme heat conditions. It is a huge responsibility of the Quantity Surveyors to consider the exact value of site offices under preliminaries. Not including such expenses under preliminaries may bring losses to the contractor or by overpricing the site offices it may be a reason not to get selected during the bidding stage.
