contractor

…organization, often called a general contractor, which takes the primary responsibility for executing the building and signs a contract to do so with the building user. The cost of the contract is usually an agreed lump sum, although cost-plus-fee contracts are sometimes used on large projects for which construction begins…

In these arrangements the contractor undertakes to finance, design, specify, construct, and commission a project in its entirety. In this case, the consulting engineer is engaged by the contractor rather than by the client.

In the field of contracting, for example, the underwriter is interested in the type of equipment owned or rented by the applicant; the applicant’s losses in the past, attitude toward safe practice, cooperation with building inspectors, and financial position and credit standing; the stability of supervisory employees; and the…