Legal Column. One Law for the Rich?

Anthony Gee pursues the themes raised in hk previous viewpoint, published in the issue for 3 May 1988: I am flattered, but somewhat disturbed, that the Secretary felt it necessary to append his (the Institution establishment’s?) comments on my ‘Viewpoint’, an action which, as far as I know, is unprecedented. ‘Viewpoint’ is supposed to be an opportunity for individual members to express their personal views on topics associated with the profession and, while correspondence and counterviewpoints are invited from readers (members?), surely an ‘official’ reaction is not appropriate to a personal view. Were my arguments considered to be so dangerously persuasive that an attempt had to be made to, as it were, strangle them at birth?

Mr H. B. Gould (F) (G. Maunsell & Partners): Mr Tait is to be congratulated on a very interesting and encouraging introduction, and I think the Institution also should be congratulated in having the second such discussion in less than a year.

The fabrication and erection plan of cable-stayed bridge construction includes the specification of the unstrained dimensions of the cables, girder, and towers. The assembly of the unstrained girder and tower elements forms the unstrained (fabricating) geometry of the structure. These data comprise information for fabrication and erection as well as providing a reference for 'forces’ and ‘displacements’ in the associated static or dynamic analyses. This paper presents methods for generating these data. In particular, the unstrained geometry calculations use conditions of equilibrium and compatibility and follow a relaxation process. The computer programs developed are applied to typical cable-stayed bridges and have been found to yield useful, reliable, and efficient solutions. P.K.A. Yiu and Professor D.M. Brotton