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The Structural Engineer, Volume 58, Issue 5, 1980
Everyone is entitled to be, and generally is, incensed when misquoted; Mr Beal is admirably restrained in drawing attention to our carelessness. He writes: An error seems to have crept into my letter on limit-state design as it appeared in print (February 1980). Towards the end of the third paragraph, it reads, ‘Assuming no one wishes to build a structure composed solely of either dead load or secondary dead load’ . . ., which might seem a slightly odd statement. It should have read, ‘Assuming no one wishes to build a structure composed solely of either live load or secondary dead load, . . .’ Verulam
In its comment to the Department of Industry on the recommendations of Engineering our future-the report of the Deportmental Inquiry under the Chairmanship of Sir Monty Finniston-the Council of the Institution, in concert with the Institutions of Civil and Municipal Engineers, said that to establish a new Engineering Authority, as proposed, to monitor education and training and to register professional engineers in the United Kingdom was wholly misconceived and dangerous. Control of such matters should be left in the hands of the engineering profession.
Mr. S. B. Tietz (F): I should like to deal with a few random problems that I have encountered on rehabilitation jobs. The purpose of old buildings usually changes when they are modified, and the structures have to be adapted to the new use and, sometimes, to changes of volumes. Often the building elevations are also schedules. Materials tailored to one use may not happily adapt to changing loads, spans, and the requirements of building regulations. Furthermore, materials may have deteriorated with age or may be so hidden that deterioration is difficult to establish. Large numbers of regulations under planning, public health, or other statutory requirements, have to be complied with, or circumvented in a manner meeting the approval of enforcement officers. The problems would be less intractable if design engineers could be the arbiters of what is structurally sensible and what is structurally less sensible. More often one has to find the lowest common denominator of acceptability.