The recent history of Codes of Practice for structural concrete work in the UK has hardly been happy. For evidence of this, one need look no further than the sorry case of CPllO1, which was introduced as a new Code in 1972 and withdrawn in 1985, while the predecessor it was meant to replace, CP1142, is still in use today. It is widely accepted that CPllO did not live up to expectations, earning a reputation of being cumbersome to use and requiring over-complex calculations for simple problems. CP110’s successor, BS8110, has been a long time in preparation- partly because a completely new text was prepared, with the intention of producing a more acceptable document. Has it succeeded? Despite its substantial improvements in presentation, the omens are not promising. Already, a ‘design manual’ has been published by the Institution and a draft revised CP114 has been published by the Campaign for Practical Codes of Practices, both claiming to be simpler to use and more in line with practising engineers’ needs. Only time will tell whether BS8llO wil gain the general acceptance that eluded its predecessor.
A.N. Beal