A contract between a client and a contractor sets out to define a scope of work and qualities of materials and workmanship, the conditions governing the execution of a defined scope of work, and the working arrangements between the parties to that contract. D.W. Quinion
The paper attempts to review those factors which make a particular bridge design more or less economic than the alternative solutions available. It refers only to medium range (say, 20 m to 100 m) simply supported or continuous spans in prestressed concrete or composite steel construction and is not relevant to long-span suspension, cable-stayed, arch- or portal-type bridges or bridges with orthotropic steel plate decks, or to short-span reinforced concrete bridges and culverts. Anthony F. Gee
The Institution can claim with justification that the quality of design management practised by its members has been, and remains, of the highest standard. The unquestioning acceptance by the public of the integrity and performance of the physical infrastructure is surely a mark of the success of the profession. G. Mills
While the paper provides a valuable contribution, particularly by demonstrating the potential advantage of the system in increasing flexural stiffness although making only a modest contribution to ultimate flexural capacity, we must draw attention to the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Structural Safety on the subject.
Council are pleased to announce the appointment of Professor John Dougill as the Institution’s Director of Engineering Affairs. The new appointment (notified originally in The Structural Engineer, August 1986, p197) is the first to be made in implementing the Development Plan, whose purpose is to enable the Institution to play a more prominent role in engineering and to provide an enhanced service for its members.
Mr G. M. Rose (F): Dr. Bobrowski’s highlighting of the assertion that increase in span must always mean an increase in price/cost is something that should receive the priority attention of this Institution, until that popular misconception held by so many engineers, accountants, and industrialists alike, is finally laid to rest.
A new expression ‘short termism’ has recently entered our language; a phrase as ugly in its use of English as its philosophy is damaging to the good of UK Ltd. In one application it describes the attitude, now manifest in so many City dealings, which forces companies to aim for quick profits, thereby maintaining good dividends and high share values, thus reducing risk of accusations of inefficient management and the trauma of takeover. On this topic, in a broadcast interview on 25 January, Mr Edward Heath, describing himself as having been trained in the City, to an absolutely different philosophy and ethic, deplored the present tendencies. ‘City concern’, he said, ‘used to be directed to the long-term benefit of industry. Now it seems many City operators are concerned only with short-term gains and what they can make out of it’. B.P. Wex
Improving quality is the most urgent and difficult task facing all members of the building industry. ‘Quality’ is, however, now being perceived as an entity of its own capable of being rationalised into a universal system grandly named ‘quality assurance’. If the implications of such systematisation on the engineer’s responsibilities are not properly understood, all efforts to improve quality could be negated. B.H. Fisher
Exponents of QA may argue that the claims presently made by both consultants and contractors of full QA being implemented on sites are not justified. Such exponents would suggest that the systems actually employed so far are merely a more formalised form of quality control. While we would agree with these arguments, we welcome the intention to achieve quality assured construction. L.J. Carvalho
It is the responsibility of the Senior Partner or Managing Director of abusiness enterprise, not of a member of middle management, to design and ensure the effective implementation of an appropriate training programme. All too often the responsibilities for matters relating to training of new recruits or existing members of staff are entrusted to an enthusiastic volunteer who is rarely given the appropriate authority, let alone resources to implement a programme of training. In most organisations the subject of training is well supported by management until the moment arises for them to nominate a member of their staff to go on a course. It is then that support for training rapidly converts to a barrage of excuses why the proposed candidate for training cannot be released. D.H. Stanger
Floors in existing mill buildings Mr C. P. Pountney of Edgmond, near Telford, has taken up the problem raised in January by Mr R. J. Rhodes of how to obtain integral action between steel beams and brick arch floors supported by them. He writes: Referring to Mr Rhodes' letter on strengthening existing steel joist/brick arch floors by a form of composite concrete-steel section construction, and in particular the steel section-concrete interaction, the following alternatives can be easily used and computed. Verulam