Verulam

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

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

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.