There are many ways to deliver an engineering project, and when it comes to cost, I’m frequently reminded of the Thomas Sowell quote, “There are no solutions, only tradeoffs.”

This article is intended to help facilitate a discussion between an owner and engineer to come to an agreement on the cost of engineering fees versus the scope and quality of services provided. Ideally, by having this conversation, the owner will get to explain what they value in their engineer and the engineer can explain the cost associated with meeting the owner’s desires. For each of the common design project phases I will attempt to briefly explain why you need it, what it includes, and cost considerations.

Survey

A frequent topic of discussion is LiDAR versus on-site survey. The savings of paying the county $200 for their LiDAR versus paying $2,000 for an on-site survey is certainly appealing. The risk with LiDAR is the difficulty in knowing the data quality. LiDAR elevations can vary 4-12 inches, while an on-site survey will be within 1/8^th inch. Has your site been altered since the last flyover? With an on-site survey, you get the most up-to-date information to the highest precision. Additionally, control points can be set for quality control during construction.

Soil Investigation

A minimum number of soil investigations are required by industry standards. A soil investigation consists of digging multiple test pits to determine if the site has any limiting features such as high saturation or shallow bedrock which will influence critical design elevations of proposed facilities. Digging a few pits beforehand helps provide more certainty that there won’t be major issues encountered during construction, causing expensive redesign. The soil investigation provides an opportunity to collect soil samples to be tested to determine if on-site soils are adequate to meet design standards or capable of supporting intended structural loads. The cost of an excavator and operator to dig the test pits and lab costs for soil testing are typically not included in the engineering fees.

Design and Calculation

This is what most understand as a typical engineer task and may involve both site design and structural design depending on the project. Applicable ordinances, regulations, industry practices, and available as-builts are reviewed along with the survey and soil data to understand the site’s limitations. It’s recommended to conduct a management assessment early on, so the engineer understands how the design needs to integrate with the farm’s management practices. This is helpful to limit the number of iterations needed to arrive at a satisfactory design. No site or project is the same, so it takes some trial and error to make everything work as a system.

Plan Preparation

This task involves taking the engineer’s design and producing a set of plans to be used for construction. While CAD software is great for designing, there’s a lot of manual labor involved in producing a quality plan set. Each sheet of the plans requires labeling features, making notes, and adding details to provide sufficient information to construct the design. Producing quality plans is an acquired skill as one must understand the general construction process and determine what is important to call out. It’s not guaranteed that a complex, highly detailed set of plans will get the owner a more favorable construction quote. On every project, an engineer needs to evaluate what is essential to mitigate risk and ensure permit approval versus what can get sorted out during construction.

Reporting

Reports are important for consolidating all the supporting design information not included on the plans. Example report documents might include the design narrative, environmental screening maps, soil investigation logs, calculations, operation and maintenance plans, and quality assurance plans. Reports provide a narrative of the thought process that occurred which led to the final design and are standard aspects of all projects as they directly support the permitting effort. Aside from regulators, there’s not much importance placed on them as they are rarely referenced once permit approvals are obtained. Additional effort (and cost) on reporting can sometimes be favorable for speeding up the permit review process. A well-written narrative can help someone unfamiliar with the project understand what’s being proposed but some may say a phone call could do the same at less cost.

Permits

You need permits to avoid subjecting yourself to penalties and enforcement. The applicability of certain permits varies with each project due to the site-specific factors and local regulations. Some of the typical permits include State CAFO, State Stormwater, State Wetland, County Waste Storage, County Erosion Control & Stormwater, County Livestock Siting, Zoning, Conditional Use, and Variances. All the applicable permits should have been identified prior to the design process. Engineering fees for permitting do not include the application fees.

Construction Observation

Many county and state regulatory agencies require post-construction documentation to be submitted, which is the engineer’s certification that the project was constructed in accordance with the permitted plans and specifications. The observer is on site to document construction progress on behalf of the engineer. Lots of tasks are included in this phase and might include things such as a pre-construction meeting, construction staking, general coordination throughout construction, as-built survey, and post-construction certification documents. Costs associated with quality assurance testing, such as concrete cylinders, are typically not included in engineering fees.

Conclusion

There’s a lot that goes into engineering design and time is directly translated to cost. There are some things that farms can do to reduce project costs, without necessarily reducing quality.

• Use a local engineering firm that is familiar with the applicable regulations, typical site conditions of your area, and can reasonably travel to your site.
• Communicate all your potential ideas to the engineer before the design process. It is expensive to have to repeat the engineering design process.
• There is a lot of coordination needed during construction. The farm can serve as the general contractor to be the primary coordinator during construction. Talk to your engineer about the work that’s involved to see if this is a cost-savings of interest to you.
• Keep and maintain records of your farm’s infrastructure. This includes as-built plans, surveys, soil investigations, design reports, permit approvals, etc. It will likely need to be referenced for future projects.

Like a vet, nutritionist, agronomist, or banker, engineers strive to be a trusted partner of a farm’s external team. Part of building that trust is being transparent about engineering fees, discussing risks, and providing a service that meets the client’s needs. When preparing your next farm project, talk to your engineer about what you value in their service and how they can tailor their services to meet your needs.

This article was first published in Progressive Dairy Magazine in August 2024.