NEC3 compared and contrasted (2nd ed.)
The NEC3 suite of contracts has become widely used in recent years, both in the UK and further afield – particularly in Hong Kong, New Zealand and South Africa. This book, now in its second edition, seeks to provide a concise guide to how aspects of NEC3 contracts relate to other contract forms currently in use in Britain and overseas.
It has three main sections: construction contracts, contracts for professional services (i.e. consultancy) and contracts from other parts of the world. The expert author of each chapter describes a particular form and compares it with its equivalent in the NEC3 family.
The main NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract is compared with the JCT 2011 Standard, Constructing Excellence and Major Project Construction Contracts; the CIOB Complex Projects Contract 2013; the RIBA Building Contracts 2014; and the IChemE Contract. The NEC3 Professional Services Contract is compared with the RIBA SFA 2010; CIC Consultant’s Contract; JCT Consultancy Agreement 2011; ACE Consultancy Agreement; RICS Standard Form of Consultant’s Appointment; and PPC 2000 Project Partnering Contract.
The final chapters have an international perspective, comparing the NCE3 family with Fidic forms and contracts from Australasia, Hong Kong, South Africa and Germany.
This compact book is full of useful information in an easily digestible form. It should provide a useful point of first reference for those familiar with NEC3 contracts and others who are working with contracts in the ever-widening global construction market.
BIM and quantity surveying
This book of 256 pages and 12 chapters provides an introduction to building information modelling (BIM) and its implementation across the construction industry.
While it has been written with quantity surveyors in mind, showing how implementation of BIM will affect the quantity surveying profession, it will prove useful for clients, designers, contractors, building managers and others within the built environment.
The underlying benefit of BIM – which requires collaborative working – in reducing risks and costs by virtual prototyping of projects before construction commences is illustrated by a number of UK-based case histories.
The book notes that it is a much greater exercise to backfill data after the event than taking the time to develop the required data at the outset. Common data environment structures enable effective data management and increased engagement with stakeholders throughout the whole life of a project, including asset management during operation and maintenance.
It also points out that the cultural barriers to implementing BIM should not be underestimated as there is a requirement to make significant changes to well-embedded work processes.
For further reading on BIM for civil engineers see www.ice.org.uk/disciplines-and-resources/information-sheet/building-information-modelling-for-civil-engineers.
From rail to road and back again: a century of transport competition and interdependency
The Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the late eighteenth century, would not have been possible without the great movement of people and materials across transport infrastructure. That infrastructure has evolved organically and artificially as technology and wealth changed.
From Rail to road and back again edited by Roth and Divall is an ambitious attempt to capture the transformation of transport in Europe and North America from the inception, steaming and fading of rail, to the emergence and dominance of roads.
What is striking is how much infrastructure was created in so little time. By 1870, only 40 years after the first steam passenger railways, there was parallel iron connecting every major city in Europe. In 1940 there were only 50 or so cars per thousand UK inhabitants, by 1970 the number had surpassed 200.
Over the twenty-first century our infrastructure may change again beyond recognition. There has never been a more important time for civil engineers to reflect on where we have come from, to learn the mistakes of the past.
Garden suburbs of tomorrow? A new future for the cottage estates
Councils across Britain undertook a mammoth effort in the first six decades of the twentieth century to create a new and optimistic form of housing – the cottage estates. In the 20 years from 1959 there were over 150 000 homes built per annum, generally in the form of well-built houses with spacious gardens.
In this book Martin Crookston describes the perceived issues on cottage estates and whether or not they are significant, drawing on a wide range of research studies by academics, councils and charities as well as his own observations. Through case studies of specific estates, he presents a diverse picture of trends in employment, ethnicity and home ownership using census data, and describes transport connectivity and bus routes.
He gives a detailed, insightful and at times colourful account – for example, quoting a description of the government policy approach to housing under-use as, ‘a sledgehammer to squash a tomato next to the nut’. Most importantly, he stresses the potential offered by the diverse situations of the different estates, not just the problems, and how unrealised potential could be realised in a cost-effective way.
NEW BOOKS
The ICE library maintains one of the most comprehensive collections of civil engineering books in the world, including all titles from ICE Publishing (shown in bold below). New books received in the past 3 months include the following.
| An introduction to geosynthetic engineering | S Shukla | £49·99 |
| Analysis and design of railway bridges | M Khan | £95·00 |
| Analysis of structures | M Rohman | £49·21 |
| Building condition surveys: a practical and concise introduction (3rd ed.) | M Hoxley | £27·00 |
| Building revolutions: applying the circular economy to the built environment | D Cheshire | £35·00 |
| Concrete design | P McMullin et al. | £21·99 |
| Construction management and organisational behaviour | M Rhoden | £37·50 |
| Damping systems in bridges | G Michaltsos | £47·00 |
| Design guideline basal reinforced piled embankments | S Van Eekelen | £69·99 |
| Estimating and tendering for construction work (5th ed.) | M Brook | £29·99 |
| Flood forecasting: a global perspective | T Adams and T Pagano | £79·00 |
| Geology for ground engineering projects | C Fletcher | £49·99 |
| Ground improvement by deep vibratory methods (2nd ed.) | K Kirsch and F Kirsch | £99·00 |
| Keating on construction contracts (10th ed.) | S Furst | £465·00 |
| Maintenance, monitoring, safety, risk and resilience of bridges and bridge networks | D Frangopol | £172·00 |
| NEC3 construction contracts: 100 questions and answers | K Hughes | £39·99 |
| Offshore structural engineering: reliability and risk assessment | S Chandrasekaran | £82·00 |
| Principles of soil dynamics (3rd ed.) | B Das | £72·99 |
| Rendering: defects and remedial measures | R Crook and R Day | £10·00 |
| Specifications for building conservation | R Cullen and R Meier | £35·00 |
| Stadium buildings | M Wimmer et al. | £75·00 |
| Start your own construction and contracting business | R Mintzer | £13·99 |
| Steel structures design for lateral and vertical forces (2nd ed.) | A Williams | £114·99 |
| Structural design for fire safety (2nd ed.) | A Buchanan | £45·95 |
| Structural members and frames | T Galambos | £18·99 |
| Structural timber elements: a pre-scheme design guide | J Norman | £45·00 |
| Sustainability improvements in the concrete industry | C Pellegrino and F Faleschini | £74·50 |
| Tall building design: steel, concrete, and composite systems | B Taranath | £114·00 |
| Tall buildings: a strategic design guide (2nd ed.) | N Clark and B Price | £40·00 |
| The journey to dissertation success: for construction, property, and architecture students | E Laycock | £24·99 |
| Transforming the future of infrastructure through smarter information | R Mair et al. | £150·00 |
| Transportation tunnels (2nd ed.) | S Ponnuswamy | £95·00 |
| Using construction contracts: a practical guide for engineers and project managers | D Wright | £49·99 |
| Whole-life value-based decision-making in asset management | A Parlikad and R Srinivasan | £150·00 |
| Wireless sensor networks for civil infrastructure monitoring: a best practice guide | D Rodenas-Herraiz et al. | £65·00 |
All books can be borrowed from the members resources hub on the second floor of 1 Great George Street, London, SW1P 3AA from 9.30 am to 5.30 pm, Monday to Friday. A selection of recent and popular ICE Publishing titles can also be purchased from the ICE library team or ordered by calling +44 1892 832299, emailing orders@icepublishing.com or by visiting www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/books.
