Precast Concrete in Buildings Today and in the Future

In August 1990, Eros was damaged by vandals climbing on the statue and swinging on the outstretched rear leg. The statue, which forms part of the Shaftesbury Memorial in Piccadilly Circus, suffered cracking in the calf of the supporting leg. EurIng Simon Clarke

Because of concern expressed by the Standing Committee on Structural Safety on the control of temporary structures needed for pop concerts and similar events and also in the aftermath of the earlier failure at Bastia, the Institution assisted the Department of the Environment by assembling a Task Group to prepare draft interim guidance on temporary grandstands. The Task Group was chaired by Dr Sam Thorburn, OBE, FEng (F) and besides members from the original drafting panels for the Institution publications on demountable grandstands and appraisal of sports grounds had nominations from the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Institute of Building Control. The interim guidance has now been reviewed by the Building Regulations Advisory Committee and received Ministerial approval for issue as a DOE document.

The Chairman I was particularly interested in the early part of your presentation in which you discussed the tunnelling and rescue of quite a number of people trapped inside the building.