Experience
Our experience
Our project management team is engaged on projects that are engineering-led in nature, where the outcome demands workable, practicable solutions rather than a generic PMO overlay. The value our project managers add comes from their engineering background: they understand what the technical teams are producing and can anticipate where risks and decisions are going to land.
Capability areas
We cover the full range of client-side and project-office services that major engineering work requires.
Risk workshops and risk register management
Complex stakeholder management
Superintendency and contract administration
Scope, programme and cost management
Cost reporting tool development
Consultant and contractor procurement
Experience across public and private contract forms
Design discipline integration and coordination
Communications management and project reporting
Presentations and workshop facilitation
Quality assurance and contract deliverable audits
Monitoring, surveillance and quality assurance (MSQA)
MSQA stands for monitoring, surveillance and quality assurance: the construction-phase work of confirming that what gets built matches what was designed and consented. We deliver MSQA as part of client-side project management, so the same team that holds the scope and programme also holds the evidence that the works were completed to the approved design.
Construction monitoring and site observation against the approved design
PS4 producer statements for construction review
Geotechnical completion reports
Records, testing results and reporting for territorial authority sign-off
MSQA runs alongside the consenting work: the same monitoring records that satisfy a territorial authority at sign-off are the ones that show the design intent survived construction.
Building and resource consents
LDE supports clients through both the building consent and the resource consent process, as part of client-side project management rather than as a separate hand-off. The team holding the scope and programme is the team preparing the application and answering the further information request.
Design certification and PS1/PS4 producer statements
Geotechnical completion reports
Resource consent applications for subdivision, earthworks and land use
Assessment of environmental effects
Monitoring, surveillance and quality assurance (MSQA) during construction
We work with territorial authorities across the North Island, and each office is staffed by people who know the regional geology, the regional plan rules and the consenting environment in the area they work in.
Client-side focus
We deliberately position our project management services on the client side of the table. Our project managers represent owner interests through design and construction, making sure that the scope the client commissioned is the one that gets built, and that contracts are administered in a way that holds the programme together without generating unnecessary disputes.
Consulting examples
Risk registers and mitigation planning
Programme and schedule development
Construction contract administration
Client-side project delivery and superintendency
Stakeholder engagement and reporting
Procurement and tender management
Expert witness evidence
Site monitoring and construction monitoring
Quality assurance and deliverable audits
What this work involves
Engineering-led projects fail in predictable places: an unresolved interface between disciplines, a scope change nobody priced, a contract administered too late to matter. Project management on this kind of work is not a reporting layer over the top of the engineering, it is the thing that keeps the engineering decisions in sequence.
We run client-side project management on technically complex work, which means representing the owner’s interest through design and construction, administering the contract, holding the risk register live rather than filing it, and making sure the scope that was commissioned is the scope that gets built. Our project managers come from engineering backgrounds, so they can read what the technical teams are producing and see where a decision is about to become expensive.
Client-side project delivery and superintendency
Risk workshops and live risk register management
Scope, programme and cost management with regular reporting
Contract administration across public and private contract forms
Consultant and contractor procurement and tender management
Design discipline integration, coordination and deliverable audits
How we approach it
We deliberately sit on the client side of the table. That shapes the job: the questions we ask are about whether the owner will get the asset they are paying for, not about protecting a delivery position. In practice it means early and unwelcome conversations about programme and cost rather than late and expensive ones, contract administration that keeps disputes from forming instead of managing them once they have, and reporting short enough that the people making decisions actually read it.
Common questions about construction monitoring
What do the levels CM1 to CM5 mean?
They are five defined levels of construction monitoring service, differing in how much of the work is reviewed: CM1 monitors another party’s quality assurance outputs, CM3 takes random samples of important procedures, and CM5 keeps someone on site reviewing constantly. Construction monitoring describes each level and cites the Engineering New Zealand document that defines them.
Who decides which level applies?
The client and the engineer, with the council’s expectations in view, and the decision belongs at design stage rather than after construction starts. Four factors drive it: project size, importance, complexity of the construction work, and the constructor’s demonstrated skill in quality management. The constructor is the one people underweight.
Is a higher level always better?
No. A higher level buys reduced risk and costs more, so the right level is the one that matches the risk the project actually carries. Paying for CM5 on a routine job with a certified contractor buys very little.
