Water and Wastewater Workforce – the Impending Challenge Part 4 – The Consulting Engineer & Contract Operator; a Historical Disconnect.

Commonwealth Engineers, Inc. (Commonwealth) has been providing water resource planning, design, construction administration, inspection, and regulatory compliance services for communities throughout the State of Indiana for over 45-years. Over this time, we have serviced many Indiana municipalities (large and small). Commonwealth has long-standing and on-going relationships with many of our partner municipalities. But, far too often, Commonwealth is introduced to a community as a result of a catastrophic occurrence such as sewer bans, a notice of violations, non-compliance with regulatory requirements, etc. Further, when responding under those circumstances, resultant solutions often prove to be robust and costly. This has been the conventional approach for the majority of the engineering consulting sector. However, what if your engineering consultant offered “complementary” partnership services? Commonwealth has seen when a true long-term, broader concept partnership between the municipality and engineering consultant occurs (combining both traditional engineering services along with alternative operations and maintenance assistance), the municipality benefits through improved services and overall cost reductions.