The Refurbishment of Westminster Bridge: Bridge Strengthening

Engineers’ salaries More engineers have written to express concern regarding the salary survey conducted by the Engineering Council. Allan Love writes from Eastbourne: Surveys and statistics can be made to show whatever the author wants shown. I find, when checking calculations, that it is compartively very easy to check what is put in front of you, but very difficult to check what you haven’t got. This, may I suggest, is what the recent survey of engineers has projected. Compare the salary figures in last month’s (January) appointments section; employers are expecting to pay engineers &15-28k, none of your £40k posts here. Or could this just be the wrong month? I think not! The Engineering Council should surely be brought to task on the matter as it is grossly misleading information and does us positive harm. It would be useful to know the parameters for the survey and the percentage of chartered engineers not on the national register. I must also question the price of the survey at £95 - for what? I would almost buy a British Standard or a Eurocode for this amount. Perhaps the Director General of the Engineering Council, Mike Heath, should respond. Criticism is of little value without a cuticle of constructive comment, but if I were to present the above figures to my employer I am sure the reaction would be ... ‘you want a 60% increase - “you cannot be serious”.’ Perhaps Verulam could print extracts, or gve a flavour of what the £95 represents. The Institution annually recommends that we continue membership of the Engineering Council, should we therefore not expect more from it‘? How about a FREE copy of the survey? The information provided is just not a fair reflection of the truth of the matter.

Sir Alfred Pugsley's memorial service is due to be held on 29 May 1998. It will be a service of thanksgiving for the life of a man who, though without revolutionary fervour himself nevertheless engendered a structural engineering revolution during the 1950s and ’60s. As John D. Allen discovered in his researches for this editorial tribute commissioned by The Structural Engineer, not only the engineering profession but the nation at large has much to thank him for.

This paper describes the assessment, investigation, design and precontract planning for the recently completed refurbishment of Westminster Bridge. The work described includes the analysis of the strength of wrought-iron and cast-iron components, an instrumented load test, and the design of strengthening works to enable the bridge to carry 40t vehicles. Particular features of the work include the adoption of a lightweight aggregate reinforced concrete deck structure and the development of facsimile replacement parapets and a bolt-type shear connector to introduce composite action bemeen the existing metalwork and the new deck. The precontract planning for the refurbishment of this strategically important transport link and national landmark in the heart of London is also described. R. Blakelock, S.R. Munson and D. Yeoeli