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Project Manager or Lead Consultant
The planning of Construction work in and around a busy school is a highly specialised business. Timetables are often very tight - for example when pupils are returning to occupy your newly refurbished boarding house and late completion is not an option. Budgets are usually set at an early stage and must be carefully monitored and controlled.
The establishment of a clear set of goals and the successful implementation and monitoring of the plan is critical. An experienced Design Team which might include Surveyors, Architects, Planning Consultants, Engineers and Quantity Surveyors is the way forward, but how do you put this team together and who is responsible for ensuring that they deliver the project on time and to budget?
An experienced Project Manager, directly appointed by the school as the Lead Consultant, will do all of this for you. He will organise the presentation of preliminary scheme designs and budgets, arrange for appropriate professionals to submit fee bids against a tightly written brief, agree a design and construction timetable with them, and then interview those practices, all prior to making recommendations for the appointments.
The Project Manager will maintain an overview of the detailed design process in order to keep it within timetable and in line with the agreed budget.
Drawing up a short list of Contractors who are suitably experienced to carry out the work is very important, as is the interviewing process upon receipt of tenders. This is the role of the Project Manager who, once work gets underway, will chair the regular progress meetings and lead the Design Team towards the successful completion of your project.
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