The text of the address given by the President, Professor Patrick Dowling, FEng, at the Institution's Annual Dinner at Guildhall, City of London, on 12 May 1995, in response to the toast to the Institution proposed by Lord Williams of Elvel. My Lords, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, I hesitate to start my speech this evening on a sombre note but at 7 o’clock this morning my wife, Grace, whom many of you know is a doctor, after much agonizing, diagnosed me as suffering from a highly contagious disease and one which is rare in her experience. She attributes this disease directly to my seven months’ service as President and I have to tell you she holds the Institution of Structural Engineers responsible for if. It is, in fact, foot and mouth disease.
This is a vision of the future of the European construction industry to which all members of the Institution might well be expected to aspire: ‘...high in public esteem, applying the best technology to improve Europe’s landscape and living environment, building beautiful buildings and creating towns in which people are happy to live and work, providing good and affordable housing and efficient uncongested infrastructure.’
The planned move of the British Library to its new location at St Pancras gave an opportunity to resolve a long-standing problem at the British Museum. The floor over the King’s Library, constructed in the 1820s by Robert Smirke incorporates longspan hogbacked iron castings made by John Rastrick. The strength and soundness of Rastrick’s girders have been the subject of much debate over the years, and the permitted imposed load on the floor has been severely restricted. The Museum was keen to apply higher loads, and this paper describes the historical background, the investigative work, and the appraisal of the existing structure, together with the design solution adopted. R.E. Slade and C. Playle
The paper reports on the use of resin injection to repair an impact-damaged motorway bridge. The significant economy of resin injection compared to other repair methods that were considered for this contruct is well illustrated. Test procedures to ensure that both the materials and the workmanship is such that the repair fully eestablishes the structural integrity ofthe damaged bridge are detailed. S.R. Rigdon, E. Burley, W.F. French, A.I. Abu-Tair and J. Dalziel
Safety in design Mr Rolfe's answer to his own question ‘a man has injured his right leg and uses a walking stick. In which hand should he hold it for maximum relief?’ (Vo1.73 No. 10 May 1995) is, based on experience of a broken leg: He holds the stick in the right hand when standing and in the left hand when walking. When standing, this enables him, if necessary, to take all the load off the injured leg. When walking, the good (left) leg is necessarily clear of the ground half the time. By holding the stick in the left hand in contact with the ground during this time the total load is shared with the bad leg. Trying to do this with the right hand will merely throw him off balance. If the injured leg cannot take approximately half the total load he will have to use crutches. Verulam