Issue 10

This short note introduces BS 5268, a compendium of codes covering the structural use of timber. It briefly explains what the code covers, summarising its seven-part structure. 

This short note provides an introduction to BS 5628: Part 2: The structural use of reinforced and prestressed masonry and BS 5628: Part 3: Materials, components, design and workmanship. These two publications complete the three-part masonry code of practice, BS 5628.

This short note provides an introduction to BS 5950, the new code for structural use of steelwork. In particular, the note summarises how the new code differs from its predecessor, BS 449.

The traditional role of the British Standards Institution in coordinating the production of specifications defining the attributes of materials or products is readily understood. Its role in the preparation of Codes of Practice is perhaps not so clear. Certainly, it is not BSI’s intention to prepare ‘textbooks’ of good practice, although some Codes have attracted that criticism; nor is it intended that Codes should be regarded as sets of rules that demand strict adherence in all circumstances. I. Dunstan

This short note introduces BS 8110, the new code of practice for the structural use of concrete, which replaces CP 110: 1972. The note briefly describes ways in which the new code differs from its predecessor.

Dr. Narayanan paints a gloomy picture about the funding of research in universities, but it is important to notice that he is concerned not so much about the amount of the funding as about the dangers to engineering of the workings of the bureaucracy of funding. Prof. A. Bolton

Dr. J. B. Menzies (F) (Building Research Establishment): First of all, I congratulate the authors on bringing together a review of modified concretes which so clearly illustrates the very wide range of these materials that is available to structural engineers today.

In the context of the title of this colloquium, EuroCodes are definitely for tomorrow and, some would say, hopefully the day after! However, it is important to recognise the significance of the EuroCodes and be prepared for their eventual implementation-national interests have perhaps even less weight now that the 10 in Europe have become the 12!!

President’s diary Following his return from the annual dinner of the Scottish Branch, the President will take the chair at the first Ordinary Meeting of the new session on the evening of 10 October, on which occasion, also, he will present the sessional awards for 1983-84.

The August 1985 issue contained the statement by the then Secretary of State for the Environment, Mr Patrick Jenkin, that he had laid two sets of building regulations before Parliament. The Building Regulations 1985 supersede The Building Regulations 1976 on 11 November 1985. Because the technical requirements have mostly been recast in a functional form, the new regulations are 25 pages long compared with the present 306. The new regulations will be supported by approved documents issued by the Secretary of State which give practical guidance on how to comply with the requirements. The approved documents refer to British Standards, and it should be a simpler matter to update the approved documents as and when appropriate than to change the references to deemed-to-satisfy documents under the present regulations. In the case of means of escape in case of fire there is no approved document because the mandatory rules for means of escape in case of fire, published by HMSO in July 1985, apply. There is also a Manual to the Building Regulations which contain the regulations, explains the new systems of control, and provides a link between the technical requirements and the approved documents.

PI/P2 Interchange is an elevated road of complex geometry currently under construction in Tuen Mun New Town, Hong Kong. The superstructures are of post-tensioned, prestressed concrete box girder construction, constructed span by span. Design was to BS 5400, as amended by the Hong Kong Public Works Department. R. McGowan and J.P. McCafferty

I do not propose to go over the history of the Institution’s involvement with structural Codes-I briefly summarised this in my paper ‘Codes and standards in design and in regulation’ presented at the Institution’s Anniversary Conference in 1984. The Institution has been actively considering its present and future role, and efforts are being made to act on the conclusions that have been arrived at. Professor M.R. Horne

Undergraduate training The May issue of The Structural Engineer contained a paper ‘An undergraduate training project-construction of a reinforced concrete grandstand’ by Mr R. Hulse, Mr M. K. Hurst, and Professor W. H. Mosley, of the Nanyang Technological Institute in Singapore. It described a practical project for second year students which was aimed at providing them with a background to their studies of design and construction through involvement in building a fullscale grandstand in rein forced concrete. The authors have now written to say that they have received a considerable number of interested comments on the project. They also wish to clarify their involvement in the exercise and give credit to all those concerned. Their letter reads: Since publication of our paper, considerable interest has been shown regarding the origins of the innovative educational concepts and training techniques that led to the construction project described. Verulam