The Restoration of Eros

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 construction industry all over the world is facing a growing shortage of skilled labour. The working environment and conditions prevailing on the construction site are still characterised as being dirty, difficult and dangerous. Yet the quality requirements on the final product are rising. More and more attention is being paid to the final product properties that the customer and the end-user regard as important, such as durability, visual appearance, total quality and quality-to-price ratio, and sustainable development. Professor dipl.ing. J.N.J.A. Vambersky

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.