What Is Construction Administration?

An RFI asks what the documents require. A submittal shows what the contractor intends to provide. A site visit compares visible work with those documents. A change, if one is needed, is issued through an ASI, a CCD, or a change order. CA is that loop, plus the logs that keep it from living in inboxes. Engineers of record administer their own disciplines, usually through the architect.

Response times are in the specifications or the general conditions. A late submittal review can delay fabrication as surely as a late shop drawing. CA staffing should match the volume. A fee that assumed a quiet job will not survive a hospital’s submittal count, and the drawings will not review themselves.

A construction manager or general contractor schedules trades, buys the work, coordinates the ceiling, and is on site every day. The architect’s CA visits are at intervals appropriate to the stage of construction. The architect does not supervise the contractor’s employees and does not control safety means. Reports that say "inspected and approved all work" overstate what a periodic visit can know.

Owners sometimes hire both an architect for CA and an owner’s representative or CM-as-agent for project controls. Those roles should have a written split. Two people answering the same RFI differently is worse than a slow answer. One log, one respondent for design intent.

When the architect certifies a pay application, the certification language matters. It is generally based on the architect’s knowledge, information, and belief from observations, not a guarantee that every concealed condition complies. Owners who treat the certificate as insurance will be disappointed. Contractors who treat a certified percent as permission to skip the documents will be too.

The architect may reject work that does not conform and may require testing. The contractor remains responsible for the work. CA does not shift construction responsibility onto the design firm. Professional liability and the construction contract answer different questions.

Substantial completion inspections, punch lists, and review of closeout submittals are CA services on a typical agreement. They are also where fatigue sets in, because the fee was spent during the RFI peak. The certificate and the record documents still need the same care as a mid-job submittal. A punch list written from memory, without the specifications, misses the tests the owner actually bought.

Consultants must be funded through this phase. A structural or MEP engineer whose CA hours ended at 90% CD is absent when their shop drawings and RFIs arrive. The owner-architect agreement should include them for the construction phase, not only for producing the set.