RRD Engr & Constr
BCA General Builder GB2 +65 9348 0216

We build it. Your engineer checks it.

Some works need a Professional Engineer: structural alterations, new openings in slabs and walls, signage and temporary structures above certain limits, regularisation of past works. When they do, we ask you to appoint the engineer yourself. Here is why, and how it works.

Two contracts, one owner.

The builder answers to you for the building. The engineer answers to you, and to the authorities, for the design and its checking. Neither answers to the other.

  1. You appoint the engineer.The Professional Engineer's appointment is with you, the owner. The Building Control Act gives that appointment to the developer or owner first; a builder appoints only where the owner has not.
  2. You pay the engineer directly.The engineer invoices you at their own rates. RRD adds no mark-up and takes no fee for the introduction.
  3. You can choose any engineer.We usually work with CVC Engineers because they know how we build. The choice stays yours, and any registered PE can do the job.
  4. Your engineer can stop us.A Qualified Person must tell the Commissioner of Building Control about contraventions they know of. That duty is the point of the arrangement.
Who works for whom The owner holds two separate contracts: a building contract with RRD and an engineering appointment with an independent Professional Engineer, who endorses plans to and reports contraventions to BCA. There is no fee or reporting line between RRD and the engineer. Building contract Appointed and paid by you No fee, no mark-up, no reporting line Endorses plans, reports breaches You, the ownerhold both contracts RRD, the builderbuilds the approved design Your engineer (PE)designs, checks, endorses BCACommissioner of Building Control

Why small jobs matter

People get hurt on small jobs.

Collapses of big buildings make the news. MOM's 2025 figures point somewhere less visible: most of the people seriously hurt in construction were hurt on smaller-scale works such as A&A and renovation, the kind of job that often goes ahead without an engineer at all.

Construction, SingaporeSmaller-scale works (A&A, renovation)Regular construction sites
Fatal and major injuries, 202410360
Fatal and major injuries, 202595 (64%)45
Fatalities, 202557

Small jobs were also slower to improve: down 8% in a year, against 25% on regular sites. Deaths alone were higher on large sites, so neither can be ignored. In January 2025 a mezzanine in a Toa Payoh warehouse, installed without BCA or SCDF approval, collapsed and trapped three people, two of them children.

That is why CVC Engineers, our usual engineering partner, does not reserve its engineers for large projects. It takes on the small ones too: a mezzanine, a new opening, a signboard, a periodic inspection, a unit that needs regularising. For an owner, the size of the job is not a reason to skip the engineer.

Sources: MOM, Workplace Safety and Health Report 2025, Key Facts and Tables (iii) and 3a; The Straits Times via Stomp, Feb 2025.

The conflict of interest, plainly

A Professional Engineer's endorsement on a structural plan or a signboard is a professional statement that the design is safe and complies with the regulations. It is made to the authorities on behalf of the owner. When a contractor appoints and pays the engineer, three things follow.

The fee comes from the party being checked. An engineer who relies on a contractor for repeat work is under quiet pressure to approve that contractor's methods, programme and shortcuts.

The owner loses the line of communication. Questions, site observations and concerns flow to the contractor first. The owner may never hear them.

The mark-up hides the true cost. When engineering fees are bundled into a building quotation, you cannot see what you are paying for the engineering, or compare it.

The law allows either arrangement. A builder may arrange engineering for its own works, and may appoint the Qualified Person where the developer has not. But the Building Control Act gives that appointment to the developer or owner first, and a Qualified Person who knows of a contravention must notify the Commissioner of Building Control. We choose the arrangement that keeps the checking independent, on every job, including small ones.

Read the full explainer, with the statutory references: PE endorsement and why independence matters.

Our usual engineering partner

Firm
CVC Engineers
Work
Civil and structural design, PE endorsement and submissions, regularisation of unauthorised works, BCA periodic structural inspection, SCDF submissions, temporary structures
Track record
12 years, 300+ design and supervision projects, 15+ regularisation projects
Fees
Quoted and invoiced to you directly. No RRD mark-up.

Visit CVC Engineers

Prefer your own engineer?

Any registered PE with a valid practising certificate can do the job. You can check a PE's registration on the Professional Engineers Board's public register.

Search the PEB register