The unprecedented construction of large-span, high-rise and technically complex Olympic facilities in a very short time sets the goal of ensuring the engineering safety of the facilities being built. A necessary condition for its solution is a well-functioning system of continuous monitoring the state of load-bearing structures. It should be capable of identifying unacceptable deviations in the operability of the structure (reducing its reliability) and notifying operating services in a timely manner. The research is devoted to designing such systems. The research subject of the study is a set of requirements for monitoring systems for engineering structures. The feed data for the conducted studies was information about accidents that occurred at constructional projects with various purposes. Analysis of monitoring tools and controlled parameters was used as a research method. The paper investigated some of the existing monitoring systems. The following global monitoring tasks are formulated: what to control; how to control; controlled parameters.