Engineers Forum

LAS VEGAS — World of Concrete 2010 (WOC) returns to the Las Vegas Convention Center, Feb. 2-5 — with educational seminars scheduled for Feb. 1-5 — and will continue to build upon a reputation as the only annual international commercial construction show for the concrete and masonry industries. WOC 2010 will showcase 1,500 indoor/outdoor exhibitors in more than a half-million gross square feet of exhibit space with more than 100 educational sessions, product demonstrations, spectator competitions, and forums.

The WOC Education Program features targeted, 90-minute and three-hour sessions, including 13 targeted tracks such as Leadership & Management, Technology for Construction, Green Building, Safety & Risk Management, Finance & Money Matters, and more.

A Technical Updates track covers the latest trends in technical applications in the concrete and masonry industries. Course offerings include concrete pavement restoration techniques, using the shotcrete process to rehabilitate infrastructure, and avoiding tolerance traps, in addition to topics on concrete mix designs.

The Green Building track covers a variety of green and environmental issues such as sustainable design, LEED and BIM ideology, pervious pavements, and green messaging. Additionally, a GreenSite exhibit area showcases green build technologies and products, along with interactive displays and videos by experts in green build technologies.

A three-hour seminar on concrete production covers improvements in the production of concrete from mixing and transporting to cleaning up after the jobs are completed. Concrete Mix Design, a popular series in this track, includes topics such as self-consolidating and sustainable concrete, adding water on site, and use of chemical admixtures.

More information and online registration is available at www.worldofconcrete.com, February 1, 2010

A Bay Area civil engineer who specializes in earthquake construction has just returned from inspecting many of the damaged buildings in Haiti. And what he saw in Haiti, he has never seen before — not on this scale.

“I wanted to look at the broad spectrum of structures,” said Eduardo Fierro.

Fierro toured homes, ports, and factories in Haiti. He had pictures he brought back with him. He says this earthquake tragedy is really an engineering tragedy.

“The reinforcement was completely inadequate, there was 1/2″ rebar,” Fierro described. “And those little rebar buckle and the building collapses. [I saw it] over and over and over.”

Fierro did Skype interviews with ABC7 News while he was on the ground in Haiti. Now that he is back, he says the damage to the port was the most dramatic structurally, with whole piers swallowed by the earth.

“The ground liquefied and it broke. It was like Armageddon with big cracks opening up,” said Fierro.

And though he has toured the world in the aftermaths of many of the largest quakes in recent years, Fierro says he has never seen the human disaster that is Haiti.

“The debris was picked up with humans and everything and taken to 30, 40 miles away and dumped next to the road and you could see people there with their arms and legs [sticking out.] That was the most striking thing for me,” said Fierro.

Amidst all of the devastation, a few structures actually did defy the odds. Fierro noted fuel tanks that buckled but did not break, and shear walled buildings that were basically unscathed.

Fierro will be speaking to engineers at U.C. Berkeley on Tuesday. The goal now is to get easy to understand earthquake safe building instructions and stronger rebar into the hands of Haitians.

Read Full Story at ABC San Francisco , By Leslie Brinkley Monday, January 25, 2010
(Copyright ©2010 KGO-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Though UK government is too restrict in health and safety of workers but even then some comapnies have a very low level of safety. Recently a news published in nce magazine reports that “A construction worker has died in an industrial accident at Hampshire’s Rose Bowl cricket ground, where a new spectator stand was being built.
Philip Carsley, from Thurnscoe, North Yorkshire, was helping to build the new stand at the ground in West End near Southampton, home to Hampshire County Cricket Club.
Local reports said that the man was crushed by a block of concrete that dropped from a crane but police have not confirmed this. The circumstances surrounding the 34 year old’s death are currently being investigated by the police and the Health and Safety Executive.
Emergency services including an air ambulance that rushed to the scene at 2pm on Monday afternoon found the man alive, but despite attempts to save him he died at the scene.
Northern Irish contractor McAleer & Rushe was the main contractor on the site.”

We ask the authorities to apply “check before happenning”policy may be adopted and workers should also be asked to follow it.

Source: http://www.nce.co.uk/5214035.article

Structural engineers said poor construction worsened the earthquake devastation in Haiti as the country does not use internationally accepted building codes

“A school collapsed following a hurricane in 2008 and one of the key issues that arose during litigation was the lack of building codes in the country”, said Arup associate director Ziggy Lubkowski.

Lubkowski, past chairman of the Society of Earthquake & Civil Engineering Dynamics (SECED) and the Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT), said it was the first time he had come across a country that used no recognisable code.

“Usually in impoverished countries such as Haiti, international building codes − be it American, English or Eurocodes − are used. There is no evidence of this in Haiti”, said Lubkowski.

The Association of Caribbean States had begun drafting a set of codes for earthquake and wind loads in the mid 2000s but there has been no evidence of implementation.

Lubkowski said the country was unprepared for earthquakes. The last big quake hit in 1877.

“Haitians are used to preparing for the annual hurricane but not an earthquake. It is totally off the radar”, said Lubkowski.

The United Nations said up to 90% of buildings in Leogane, the town closest to the quake’s epicentre had been destroyed.
Smith said seismic designs could have limited the scale of devastation.

“Although it can’t guarantee every structure will be unharmed, it can provide ductility, meaning despite what damage occurs the building in question will not collapse”, he said.

Lubkowski said Haiti could have done a better job at earthquake-proofing its buildings.

“Protecting lifelines is critical. The focus should be on designing key infrastructure, such as roads, power lines and hospitals to an acceptable standard. The relief effort is being hampered because key infrastructure like roads and ports are destroyed. The only way to bring supplies to the country is by air”, said Lubkowski.

Source:http://www.nce.co.uk/5213109.article written by Gemma Goldfingle

Two senior officials of contractors Hyundai and Gammon India have been arrested in the wake of the collapse of an under-construction bridge over the Chambal river near Kota in Rajasthan on Christmas Eve.

Several labourers were working on the bridge over the Chambal river at Dabi-Nayagaon in the state of Rajasthan, when the accident happened on 24 December. According to local police, although rescuers have recovered some 12 bodies, they fear the 30 other people still missing could be dead.

The bridge was being built by Hyundai and Gammon India in a joint venture project.

The Press Trust of India has reported that J Y Hue, chief project manager of Hyundai Engineering and construction and R Chatopadhyay, deputy project manager of Gamon India have appeared before a local court and are being held on remand for five days.

Dozens of labourers fell into the water late Thursday when the bridge on which they were working gave way over the Chambal river on the outskirts of the city of Kota in Rajasthan state.

“At least 45 people are presumed to have died in the bridge collapse,” senior police official Rajeev Dasot told the Associated Free Press, raising the estimated death toll from 17.

Two teams of naval divers were helping retrieve bodies from the deep waters and authorities were considering demolishing the remaining portion of the structure.

Neither contractors have made a statement on the accident.

India’s national highway authority and the state government have launched an inquiry into the accident.

The Press Trust of India quoted federal junior transport minister Mahadeo Singh Khandela as saying construction of the bridge was almost a year behind schedule.

Police inspector general Rajeev Dasot said that workers are engaged in clearing debris from the site near Kota, around 170 miles west of Jaipur – the state capital.

It could take another three days to clear all the debris from the site.

Source: http://www.nce.co.uk/5212362.article, 26 December, 2009