The Use of External Tendons for the Bangkok Second Stage Expressway

Serving and protecting the profession In our column for 19 October, Hugh Woodrow, Chief Executive of the Association of Consulting Engineers, drew attention to the services provided by the ACE to chartered engineers, including structurul engineers, in private practice. This was in response to the need which had been expressed in a letter by Ken Burr (l7 August) for ‘a trading organisation representing the chartered structurul engineer in business’. Mr Burr responds as follows: It is interesting that Hugh Woodrow should respond to my recent letters under this heading. I took the opportunity to telephone ACE to discover whether it provides the type of service I feel is needed by me in particular and to members in private practice in general. The answer is a clear NO. The prime reason is that, to join ACE, applicants need to be either Fellows of the Institution or agree to seek election to Fellowship within 5 years. This could start another debate, but I for one cannot see the advantages of seeking Fellowship of the Institution. Also the interests of ACE are too diverse. It invites membership from about 14 Institutions and appears to be expanding this to include non-chartered engineers, yet has a membership of only about 700 firms. Mr Halstead is clearly a member of ACE and seems to think that so are we all. Verulam

The question is, what is the legal effect of using the word ‘certify’ as opposed to some other wording such as ‘to the best of my knowledge and belief or ’in my professional opinion’? J.A. Welsh

A companion paper reports on the testing of a series of five two-bay X three-storey plane frames at full scale. Different forms of beam-to-column joint were employed, the principal objective being to study the influence of connection properties on deflections, distribution of internal forces and eventual failure of the frames. D.B. Moore and Professor D.A. Nethercot