Waterloo International Rail Terminal Trainshed Roof Structure

Recommended foundation depths in shrinkable clays In The Structural Engineer for 15 March, two correspondents challenged the feasibility of a proposal made by Mr G. A. H. Trollope (18 January) that the BRE-recommended requirements for foundation depths should be changed to allow for possible long-term efsects of trees introduced within the presumed life of the building concerned. Mr R. E. Hedges of Greatstone, Romney Marsh, comes to the support of what Mr Trollope advocated: It would seem to me that neither Mr Driscoll nor Mr Tari lives in this world, nor to have dealt with a good many people whose most valuable asset has become damaged by tree roots affecting the foundations of their home. Verulam

Without doubt the Institution is changing. We wrestle with problems of rescheduling debts and trying new ways of controlling our finances; we make preparations for Europe and consider our international membership - and within all this we are called by our Council of Presidents to reconsider our relationships with the other 46 Institutions. We are even to consider a one-voice engineering body. Rumour has it that we are under threat of Government action, and that they are already preparing a green paper - ‘Statute for the over-arching of professional engineers: regional, metropolitan and national’ (Fig 1). And should we be all forced to register to practise by Brussels, the European Commission already has the vehicle available in its British Instrument for Engineers Registration (Fig 2) - which vehicle seems somehow appropriate. D.R. Plum

Acronyms often make documents unreadable except by experts and can be deceptive. The Construction Industry Council (CIC), of which the Institution is a member, is the prime and permanent overall body set up and controlled by the various self-governing institutions in the construction industry. On the other hand, the Construction Industry Standing Conference (CISC) originated as a temporary body (set up with partial Government funding in 1990) to put on paper a system of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) for application at all levels and in all branches of the construction industry. There are three other standing conferences in engineering - Engineering Services (ESSC), Engineering Manufacture (SCEM), and Extraction & Processing (SCEP). Professor A. Bolton