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The Structural Engineer

As members with sufficiently long memories will recall, the Government’s proposals for ‘Approved Persons’ were extensively debated 12 years ago; procedures for assessing candidates and maintaining a register were formulated jointly with the Institution of Civil Engineers and, at that time, it was hoped that there would be rapid progress towards final approval by Government. The underlying assumption (which still applies) was that ‘Approved Inspectors’ (AIS), when appointed, had to approve all Building Regulations, whereas ‘Approved Persons’ (APs) would specifically address structural requirements. While they therefore had to understand the Building Regulations sufficiently to know the context within which structural adequacy was determined, there was no need fully to understand (or indeed be responsible for) other aspects of the Regulations. Stefan B. Tietz

The Structural Engineer

Dr P. A. Jackson (F) (Gifford & Partners) Having been responsible for the assessment, testing and analysis of a number of similar bridges, I was very interested in this paper. I have a few comments and would like to hear the authors’ views.

The Structural Engineer

The Chairman What has been done with the building now that Expo has finished? I understood, at the beginning, thathe buildings were to be folded up and taken away and used elsewhere. What is the current situation?

The Structural Engineer

Mr D. K. Doran (F) It has been my privilege for the past 7 years to chair the two Institution task groups working on this topic. One of the benefits of being Chairman is that one does not have to do too much work. What cannot be delegated, of course, is responsibility, and I accept that. Tonight I should like to pay public tribute to the hard work of the two task groups which have valiantly laboured to produce these reports, and in particular tonight’s speakers for putting together, in fairly short order, our papers for this evening. Mr. D.K. Doran

The Structural Engineer

This paper considers where over-design may exist in current engineering practice and, in particulal; traces the history of imposed load allowances and the relevance of current values, as designated in the current British Standard, to today’s commercial ofice buildings. Independent research into actual loading conditions is considered and compared with the normally adopted values of imposed loads. Anomalies with other western European countries are noted, and areas where a review of the current relevant British Standards may be appropriate are identfied. J.A. Austin

The Structural Engineer

There have been many situations in which flexural members - especially bridge girders -have been found to have less than the desired strength. A widely used method of providing additional strength has been the introduction of prestressing by means of external tendons'. External tendons are prestressing strands situated outside the original concrete section and are connected to the structure by anchorages and deviators. B.J. Sun

The Structural Engineer

A happy New Year to you all! The Christmas holiday has proved inspirational to a number qf readers... Deflection of portals Mr D. H. Camilleri has written from Malta and is concerned about the vertical deflection of portal frames. He writes: I have often wondered regarding the validity of the ridge deflection dRE quoted in section 11.5 of Manual for the design of steelwork building structures given as: dRE = dE X cot รจ, where dE is the horizontal deflection.