Eurocodes are now 75% completed and well on their way to becoming the world's new structural design standards. Haig Gulvanessian, chairman of the UK's pan-industry Eurocodes Expert advisory group, provides an update.
The massive publishing programme for the 58 new European structural design codes—the most advanced structural codes in the world—is now 75% completed. It confirms beyond any doubt that the Eurocodes will soon revolutionise how most of the world designs its buildings and civil engineering structures.
The total number of Eurocodes made available by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) Technical Committee 250 is due to reach 43 this month (August 2006). The remaining 15 parts are close to being finalised and all should be published by April 2007.
By the middle of this year, the British Standards Institution (BSI) had published 32 BS EN versions of the codes—including all those for concrete, steel-and-concrete composite, timber and masonry structures. UK versions will also reach the three-quarters mark within the next month or so.
Implementation is progressing at a similar pace throughout the other ‘old’ European Union nations but also in many of the 10 new member states and four accession and candidate countries.
Further afield—thanks primarily to BSI-led seminars—Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Syria and Vietnam have already decided to base their future structural design standards on the Eurocodes, and China, India, Oman, Qatar, Sri Lanka and UAE are also interested.
National annexes underway
However, the key to implementation of Eurocodes in the UK as elsewhere is publication of national annexes.
BSI had published five national annexes by the middle of this year and, barring any unforeseen developments, will have published most of the remainder well inside the statutory two-year time limit.
Allowing for a period of co-existence, the latest date for withdrawal of BS and other national codes will be early 2010—and this timetable will be comfortably met by most EU countries. It is therefore a certainty that within the next three years, Eurocodes will be the only structural codes generally available for European building and civil engineering designers.
Furthermore, for public works contracts and for obtaining CE marking for structural products, components and kits of parts, Eurocodes may well have to be used earlier.
ICE and IStructE support
The UK Government fully supports implementation of the Eurocodes in the UK and the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) has set up a pan-industry implementation committee to support this.
In particular the IStructE committee has been working closely with the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) structures and buildings board during this year to develop ICE's Eurocodes Expert website at www. eurocodes.co.uk as a pan-industry information source. This will provide comprehensive and easy-to-access information on the codes and all available training courses, seminars, publications, software and web resources. The new site is due to be launched in the next couple of months.
The courses and guidance already available in the UK—most of which are already listed on ICE's current Eurocodes Expert site—greatly surpasses anything available in other European member states. UK civil and structural engineers are now urged to take full advantage of these resources to get maximum benefit from the huge opportunities Eurocodes will provide, both in Europe and worldwide.
However, with every opportunity there comes a threat. It is vital that decisions taken by design organisations about when to implement Eurocodes strategically consider the likely competition from the rest of Europe. My advice would be to start now.
Cost implications
Many of the Eurocodes are quite different to the BS and other national codes they will soon replace, with less emphasis on advice, guidance and availability of appropriate software. There is no doubt the profession will need to invest significantly in retraining and in acquiring new design software, not to mention the costs of buying codes themselves. ICE and IStructE are lobbying Government for financial support for providing guidance and training.
However, there is also an exponentially growing range of free support and guidance being made available by national standards bodies, EU-funded research programmes, professional institutions and materials associations—all of which can be accessed via the Eurocodes Expert website.
While there will certainly be a cost for making the change to Eurocodes, the cost of deferring it is one the profession really cannot afford.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, Haig Gulvanessian, TEL +44 (0)20 7665 2303, EMAIL eurocodes@thomastelford.com, WEB www.eurocodes.co.uk
