For port authorities & project owners
Independent supervision, on your side of the table.
We act as the Engineer under FIDIC — with the formal authority to instruct, measure and certify — for authorities and owners who have a dredging contract to run and no in-house dredging department to run it. We do not bid for dredging work in the markets where we supervise. Our only interest is that yours is protected.
What keeps owners awake
Are the quantities real?
Payment follows survey. If the baseline is loose or the method is the contractor's alone, the quantities are an opinion. We fix the measurement basis before mobilisation and verify every claim against it.
Is this variation legitimate?
Some are. Under FIDIC an unforeseen condition is a genuine entitlement, and refusing a valid claim costs more at arbitration than paying it. The job is telling the two apart, in writing, within the notice period.
Who is protecting the programme?
Delay is rarely announced. It accumulates in small under-performances that a weekly read of production data catches and a monthly progress meeting does not.
The engagement
A resident engineer on site for the full contract is the thorough answer, and for many projects it is more supervision than the risk justifies. This is the lean version — placed where the decisions actually get made.
Mobilisation check
Before a cubic metre is moved: verify the plant that arrives is the plant that was tendered, confirm the survey baseline both parties will be measured against, and put the reporting format in writing. Most disputes we are later asked to unpick were decided here, by omission.
Remote monitoring
Production reports, survey data and progress claims reviewed against the baseline every week. A dredger under-performing against its own tendered rate shows up in the numbers long before it shows up in the programme.
Mid-project site visit
On site, on the vessel, in the survey room. Some things do not appear in a report: cutter wear, spoil placement, an overflow procedure quietly changed, a swell compensator that has not worked since week two.
Completion sign-off
Final survey verified, quantities agreed, and the outstanding variation claims assessed on their merits before they become a settlement negotiation.
Commercials
Supervision is quoted as a fixed fee built from day rates against a defined scope, agreed before we start. Not an open hourly meter, and not a percentage of contract value — a percentage rewards the supervisor when the project gets more expensive, which is the wrong incentive to put beside your money.
Overrun protection. If the contract runs beyond its programme by more than 10%, we continue at the agreed day rate through to completion. The risk of a dredging contract taking longer than planned is the contractor's problem and yours — it should not also become a second negotiation with your Engineer.
What you receive
Tell us the scope, the programme and the form of contract. We will tell you straight whether the project needs an Engineer at all, and what it would take.
Email us — info@dredgepartners.comA founder replies within 24 hours. There are no juniors here.