Elsewhere in ICE Proceedings Free

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers Management, Procurement and Law 162 February 2009 Issue MP1 Pages 39–43 doi: 10.1680/mpal.2009.162.1.39Elsewhere in ICE ProceedingsS. K. Fullalove, Editor The following are summaries of papers published in other parts of ICE Proceedings during 2008 that readers of Management, Procurement and Law may find of interest. Summaries of all papers in ICE journals are freely available and fully searchable at the ‘journals on-line’ section of the ICE website. See www.ice.org.uk/journals for details.Women reach the top in civil and structural engineering S. Buck Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 161, No. 1, February, 9, doi: 10.1680/cien.2008.161.1.9There is no reason why women cannot now reach the highest levels in Britain’s construction industry, says Sarah Buck, who recently became the first female president of the Institution of Structural Engineers.Health and safety prosecutions exceed £2 million D. Lamont Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 161, No. 1, February, 10, doi: 10.1680/cien.2008.161.1.10Poor health-and-safety practices not only put people and projects at risk but can also result in hefty penalties. Donald Lamont, of ICE’s health and safety expert panel, says recent prosecutions have led to jail terms and total fines of over £2 million a year.Realising the UK’s Digital National Framework K. Murray Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 161, No. 1, February, 12, doi: 10.1680/cien.2008.161.1.12First mooted in 1999, the UK’s Digital National Framework set out to create an industry standard for integrating and sharing business and geographic information from multiple sources. Keith Murray of Ordnance Survey says the concept is now becoming reality.Continuing professional development – a duty on us all D. Lloyd-Roach and R. Larcombe Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 161, No. 2, May, 53, doi: 10.1680/cien.2008.161.2.53The Institution of Civil Engineers is taking steps to ensure more members are aware of their duty to society to maintain their competence. Director of membership David Lloyd-Roach and consultant Richard Larcombe conclude that more effort is still needed.Benchmarking computer-aided design skills R. Vance and J. Kinns Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 161, No. 2, May, 54, doi: 10.1680/cien.2008.161.2.54Civil engineering businesses should quantify the performance of their computer-aided design (CAD) teams to ensure they get a proper return on their considerable investment in CAD technology. Rory Vance of Cadsmart and John Kinns of the Institution of Civil Engineers’ information systems panel explain.ICE to produce best-practice guide for UK construction clients S. Kershaw and D. Hutchison Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 161, No. 3, August, 99, doi: 10.1680/cien.2008.161.3.99The Institution of Civil Engineers has set out to produce a definitive best-practice guide for UK construction clients. Sue Kershaw of the Olympic Delivery Authority and David Hutchison of Parsons Brinckerhoff report.Communications failures highlighted by professional conduct cases B. McGowan Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 161, No. 3, August, 102, doi: 10.1680/cien.2008.161.3.102Sole traders and small businesses involved in domestic projects continued to dominate the work of the Institution of Civil Engineers’ professional conduct panel last year. Chairman Bob McGowan says most of the cases could have been avoided if members communicated more effectively with their clients.Sustainability: still absent from the higher-education agenda S. Parkin Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 161, No. 4, November, 148, doi: 10.1680/cien.2008.161.4.148Most engineering degree courses in the UK are failing society’s need for ‘sustainability literate’ professionals, says Sara Parkin of Forum for the Future. Fortunately there are a few good examples which should be turned into standard practice for everyone.Corporate manslaughter – radical change or false alarm?A. Metherall Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 161, No. 4, November, 149, doi: 10.1680/cien.2008.161.4.149New corporate manslaughter legislation is now in force in the UK. Ann Metherall of ICE’s health and safety expert panel says it could have major consequences for civil engineering organisations and professionals.Heathrow Terminal 5: gaining permission R. Pellman Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 161, Special Issue 1 – Heathrow airport Terminal 5, May, 4–9, doi:10.1680/cien.2008.161.5.4When Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow airport opened on 27 March 2008, it was almost 23 years since the publication of the 1985 Airports Policy White Paper that had encouraged its development. This paper explains the challenges inherent in trying to deliver a major infrastructure project through the UK planning system, and describes how the absence of clear and updated government policy contributed to the record 525 days spent at the planning enquiry before consent for the £43 billion airport expansion could be granted. It also recognises that the project involved issues of national importance that affected many thousands of people, particularly those living under the flight paths.Heathrow Terminal 5: delivery strategy A. Wolstenholme, I. Fugeman and F. Hammond Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 161, Special Issue 1 – Heathrow airport Terminal 5, May, 10–15, doi:10.1680/cien.2008.161.5.10The success of the five-year construction phase of Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow airport was dependent on putting into effect the principles of a unique form of contract, called the Terminal 5 agreement. The £43 billion scheme required the client to lead in areas that were typically the traditional domain of suppliers or contractor organisations, resulting in novel methods and relationships. From the early stages it was recognised that the project had to be delivered differently to the norm if it was to achieve its desired objectives. This resulted in the phrase that all those involved in the delivery of the T5 were part of ‘history in the making’.Heathrow Terminal 5: health and safety leadership M. Evans Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 161, Special Issue 1 – Heathrow airport Terminal 5, May, 16–20, doi:10.1680/cien.2008.161.5.16Heathrow airport’s Terminal 5 project has gained widespread recognition for a safety performance some four times better than industry norms and for setting new benchmarks for occupational health and safety. The sheer size of the £43 billion project, its structural and managerial complexities and the 60 000 people that have worked on site have presented significant challenges. As this paper describes, safety leadership– as distinct from safety management – coupled with real engagement of, and respect for, all concerned has led to cultural change. This has not only reduced the number and severity of injuries but has also resulted in improved worker health, satisfaction, morale and performance.Organisational lessons from failures S. Wearne Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 161, Special Issue 2 – Learning from failures, November, 4–7, doi:10.1680/cien.2008.161.6.4This paper reviews reported causes of a range of engineering failures from around the world in an attempt to define general lessons for future projects. It draws on cases of major failures reported over the past few years and the conclusions of an earlier review reported in 1979. The reports indicate that not a single failure was caused by hitherto unknown physical phenomena occurring without prior warning. All were caused by failures to use information available somewhere. They were therefore ‘institutional’ risks of systems of organisation, communications and procurement.Learning from failures at the interface A. Mann Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 161, Special Issue 2 – Learning from failures, November, 8–15, doi:10.1680/cien.2008.161.6.8Civil engineers continually interact with other engineering disciplines. There are also many internal interfaces, for example between design and construction and between analysis and practice. Clearly, opportunities for misunderstandings abound whenever there is an interface between specialist skills, and – left undiscovered – can result in failure. It is vital to learn from all failures, and grouping them under interfaces offers a convenient categorisation. Those discussed in this paper include building interfaces, technology frontiers, structures supporting moving loads, bearings, systems’ behaviour and control systems.The importance of learning from past experience T. A. Kletz Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 161, Special Issue 2 – Learning from failures, November, 16–19, doi:10.1680/cien.2008.161.6.16While technology may change, people do not – they often make the same errors as earlier generations. Unfortunately, people forget the lessons of the past and allow the same failures to happen again. Furthermore, large organisations of people have no memory whatsoever. This paper describes some examples of recurring failures in the process industry, most of which have resulted in accidents and most of which could have been prevented if people were more aware of past experience. Suggestions for improving the documentation and dissemination of past failures are given.Achieving sustainability in the construction supply chain I. Adetunji, A. D. F. Price and P. Fleming Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Engineering Sustainability,161, No. 3, September, 161–172, doi: 10.1680/ensu.2008.161.3.161 Sustainable construction and supply chain management (SCM) have, in recent years, become two of the most important performance-related issues within the construction industry. To achieve corporate sustainability within any organisation, it is essential that sustainability issues are addressed throughout the organisation’s whole supply chain, a process referred to as sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). The implementation of SCM and sustainability is, however, an extremely complex undertaking. Through an extensive literature review and detailed interviews, this research has identified the conditions and strategies for achieving SSCM within construction organisations. The research also investigated the meaning, barriers and enablers, issues, tools and techniques for achieving successful SCM and SSCM. The study was based on the perspectives of senior managers of exemplar organisations with a proven track record in sustainability and SCM. It has been possible to identify best practice from which other organisations can learn, thus supporting the industry in the move towards more sustainable construction practices.Educating for urban sustainability: a transdisciplinary approach G. Brewer, T. Gajendran, C. Landorf and T. Williams Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Engineering Sustainability,161, No. 3, September, 185–193, doi: 10.1680/ensu.2008.161.3.185An understanding of sustainability issues should be a key component of degree programmes. It is widely regarded as being a central attribute to professional practice and responsible global citizenship, arguably more so for the training of teachers since they potentially influence their students. This issue was brought to the fore when responsibility for delivering the‘design and the environment’ course was transferred to the building discipline at the University of Newcastle in Australia as a result of restructuring. The attractiveness of the subject as an elective, the need to make it accessible to distance learning students and the desirability of applying transdisciplinary approaches to solving environmental problems presented the course designers with both challenges and opportunities, particularly in devising an assessment context within which students from multiple disciplines could be exposed to, and learn from each other’s professional environmental evaluation norms. This paper describes an innovative holistic, multi-criteria problem-solving course design that allows a diverse mix of undergraduates to develop a transdisciplinary understanding of sustainability issues through the use of learning contracts. It reports the experiences of staff and students involved with the course, highlighting the beneficial outcomes.Impact of participants’ values on construction sustainability R. Fellows and A. Liu Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Engineering Sustainability,161, No. 4, December, 219–227, doi: 10.1680/ensu.2008.161.4.219This paper examines the processes through which the values relating to construction projects, with particular reference to sustainability, are determined and operationalised. Those values are fundamental in governing the performance of both the project, as a product in occupation and use, and project management, as processes of realisation of the project involving design and construction. The values determine what performance variables are considered and their relative importance which, within the applicable parameters, controls and constraints, yield the performance targets for the project – against which realised performance will be evaluated. Those values are derived from the value structures of the project participants and so must be elicited and collated under the influence of the evolving membership and power structure of the project temporary multi-organisation (TMO). The TMO, as a shifting, multi-goal, power-based coalition, promotes fluctuations in the values employed to drive the project as it develops and so makes evaluation of performance highly problematic. Given that the values are human-determined, they are grounded in culture. Thus, understanding culture, as an operative construct in the project value system, enables the concepts and practices relating to the sustainability of construction projects to be understood and developed.Models for teaching sustainable development to children M. Crapper, R. Donald, D. Hill, A. Hall and W. French Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Engineering Sustainability,161, No. 4, December, 229–236, doi: 10.1680/ensu.2008.161.4.229Two models were constructed for use in primary schools to help educate children on the meaning of sustainable development, and more generally on the role of civil engineers. The models shared the same basic structure. One consisted of a river valley, where undeveloped and developed land could be set up and the effects of flooding due to rainfall and river flows investigated. Various types of flood protection could be examined and the effects discussed. The second model allowed a hydropower scheme, with a dam and turbines, to be installed in the river valley. The flow, head and power generated could be varied and the effect on various stakeholders discussed. Both models were accompanied by detailed lesson plans. The models were tested on pupils aged 10 and 11 years from a local primary school. Feedback was good and it was found that in almost all cases the models and associated lessons had improved the children’s understanding of sustainable development and the role of civil engineers.The ground: clients remain exposed to unnecessary risk D. Egan Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Geotechnical Engineering,161, No. 4, August, 189–195, doi: 10.1680/geng.2008.161.4.189The ground remains the greatest source of risk to construction projects. In spite of a wealth of freely available information and guidance on the central importance of adequate site investigation in managing ground risk, many clients remain unnecessarily exposed to risk due to inadequate site investigation. The Federation of Piling Specialists undertook a comprehensive survey of geotechnical designers within its membership to evaluate the usefulness of site investigation information routinely provided to them. For nearly a third of all the piling and specialist geotechnical contracts surveyed, the site investigation information provided was poor, preventing optimisation of the foundation solution. The cost to clients arising out of poor site investigations far exceeds the savings that could be made by following good practice when investing in a site investigation. The survey indicates that good practice guidance is not being followed, resulting in investigations that are not adequately designed, specified or supervised. Recent developments in robustness and relation with risk J. Agarwal and J. England Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Structures and Buildings,161, No. 4, August, 183–188, doi: 10.1680/stbu.2008.161.4.183Structural engineering is a mature discipline, but in practice the nature of demands or actions on a structure remains uncertain. It is difficult to foresee where damage, for example resulting from an accident or material degradation, might occur. A structure that is robust will be able to cope with such unexpected demands without disproportionate consequences. There is, however, no satisfactory measure of robustness: not even a widely agreed definition. In this paper an overview of the current guidelines and methodologies to achieve a robust structure is provided. Most of the analytical studies assume a model of loading, but to achieve robustness there is a need to identify potential weaknesses in the form of a structure. In this respect, structural vulnerability theory can be an effective tool to reduce the risk of propagation of failure owing to unforeseen damage or actions. Similar models are already used in the insurance industry to determine the risk to natural and man- made hazards.Risk, reliability and sustainability in the developing world M. Sa´nchez-Silva and D. V. Rosowsky Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Structures and Buildings,161, No. 4, August, 189–197, doi: 10.1680/stbu.2008.161.4.189Developing countries need more affordable housing and a plan for infrastructure development that is environmentally sound, socially acceptable, economically justified and sustainable. The enormous shortage of funds as well as pressures resulting from other factors (e.g. poverty) can, however, make long-term and sustainable planning exceedingly difficult. A new focus should be placed on developing models that are able to use and process larger amounts of information, obtained from different sources and in different forms, to provide engineering solutions that have a positive impact on sustainability. Achieving sustainable development includes taking risks and using limited resources efficiently. Towards this end, structural risk and reliability are essential tools for defining appropriate levels of investment. It is suggested that, by adopting safety standards specified in codes of practice of developed countries, less developed countries may be spending more to achieve levels of safety not warranted by their level of development. That is, it may be more beneficial to accept a lower level of safety in favour of increased infrastructure development.Structural reliability and performance-based engineering B. R. Ellingwood Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Structures and Buildings,161, No. 4, August, 199–207, doi: 10.1680/stbu.2008.161.4.199Civil infrastructure facilities must be designed to withstand demands imposed by their service requirements and by natural environmental events. In the past four decades, structural reliability methods have matured to the point that they now provide the framework for addressing safety and serviceability issues in modern codified structural design, and most countries have adopted such methods for code development. While the normal design process usually results in a constructed facility with a degree of integrity that is also available to withstand challenges from unforeseen events, events outside the traditional design envelope may result in severe damage or economic losses and, in extreme instances, precipitate catastrophic collapse. In an era of heightened public awareness of infrastructure performance, performance-based engineering (PBE) offers a new paradigm that may allow structural engineers to meet these challenges and to better match building design with owner, occupant and social performance expectations. Successful implementation of PBE will require understanding and acceptance of the supporting quantitative structural reliability risk assessment methods and risk-informed decision tools summarised in this paper.Treatment of risk and reliability in the Eurocodes T. Vrouwenvelder Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Structures and Buildings,161, No. 4, August, 209–214, doi: 10.1680/stbu.2008.161.4.209Designing a structure essentially comes down to making decisions in the face of uncertainty. This paper discusses how the new generation of European standards, the Eurocodes, deals with this issue. According to EN 1990 Eurocode-Basis of Structural Design, the theory of probability may be considered as the appropriate design tool in this respect. To keep the design process practicable, however, the probabilistic methods are translated into a verification process on the basis of partial factors. In setting values for the partial factors, theoretical considerations and long-term design experience are mixed. Next to the design for normal loading conditions, the Eurocode gives special attention to the design for accidental situations such as fire, explosions or errors. When dealing with these topics the code is of a more informal nature, giving freedom to designers and authorities. The recommendations range from prescribed solutions (minimal ductility and redundancy, horizontal and vertical tyings, etc.) to a formal risk analysis for important or extraordinary structures. Non-structural measures, extra safety for key elements and alternative load paths are presented as valuable elements in the safety strategy. The code reflects the increasing awareness of the engineering society for the importance of risk-based decision making in design and maintenance.Reliability, responsibility and reality in structural engineering D. A. Nethercot Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Structures and Buildings,161, No. 4, August, 215–218, doi: 10.1680/stbu.2008.161.4.215For a person to be described as reliable or for a service to be regarded as something that can be relied upon is an easily recognised and highly desirable description. Yet when reliability is mentioned within the structural engineering community, it provokes decidedly mixed reactions. For the enthusiasts – found almost entirely within the academic community – it is a key tool in the quest to understand and describe ever more challenging aspects of structural behaviour, but to the practitioner it is largely an irrelevance: something that belongs elsewhere with no real place in their everyday activities. They may have read something about ‘the improved levels of reliability’ assured by newly introduced codes of practice, recall that it is somehow related to risk or note increased use of the word in project specification documents. Why this difference in attitude? What are the reasons? Can the divide be bridged? Does it matter? This paper presents a largely personal view on these issues.Managing risks to structures D. Blockley Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Structures and Buildings,161, No. 4, August, 231–237, doi: 10.1680/stbu.2008.161.4.231Structural engineering has changed markedly over the last decades, creating new challenges and new opportunities. Consequently, structural engineers are widening their thinking from just technical issues to the effects of other matters on the risks to their structures. In particular there is a need to find better methods for integrating hard and soft risks. Hard systems are physical and technical matters traditionally dealt with by engineering science. Soft systems involve people and include matters traditionally dealt with by engineering management. In order to make improvements, engineers have to combine good- quality evidence from disparate sources, both technical and from wider issues. The current paper demonstrates how disparate evidence can be measured and combined using interval probabilities drawn as colourful ‘Italian flag’ indicators of risk. Process models are used to map the progress of projects. An Italian flag is associated with each process to indicate the level of dependability, based on all the information available at the time, that the process will be successful, which is to reach the stated objectives. A new method of pairwise combinations is described and used to calculate the flags through the entire process model. An example of the procurement of a building is used to illustrate the method.Karachi in 2020: approaching planning as a project N. Ahmed Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Urban Design and Planning,161, No. 3, September, 123–129, doi: 10.1680/udap.2008.161.3.123Pakistan’s ongoing Karachi strategic development plan 2020 (KSDP 2020) approaches city planning as a project. The overall assignment, comprising vision building, articulation of objectives, situation analysis and development of planning scenarios, was undertaken from a project-oriented standpoint. It poses a challenge to the various stakeholders in the city, including city planners. Empirical research has established several urban development trends in the city. These include large-scale real estate projects with the assistance of foreign venture capitalists, mega transportation projects in the form of expressways and light rail transit, large schemes of landscape development, swift conversion and demolition of heritage properties and land sale ventures for housing projects. Almost all the projects have been announced on an ad hoc basis without any relevance to current or past urban planning guidelines. This paper examines the plan-making process undertaken for KSDP 2020. It analyses the planning approach with respect to internally defined objectives, stated procedures and findings. Based on specific case studies, the paper highlights the nature of the relationship between the various projects and the existing planning attempt, which is perceived as a project by the city administration. The paper presents an overall critique of whether city planning can be applied as a project across the outlined parameters.Identifying risk factors of BOT for water supply projects S. X. Zeng, T. W. Wan, C. M. Tam and D. Liu Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Water Management, 161, No. 2, April, 73–81, doi: 10.1680/wama.2008.161.2.81In China, urbanisation, industrialisation and increasing population are straining the existing infrastructure facilities, the shortage of which will suffocate economic growth and social development. In order to overcome the ‘bottleneck’, the Chinese government has explored the mechanism of the build– operation–transfer (BOT) model to encourage infrastructure provisions from the private sector. Using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique, this paper constructs a three-level hierarchy for identifying the critical risk factors for water supply BOT projects in China. By comparing the 28 risk factors, the critical risk factors were short-listed and found to include‘change of taxation policy’, ‘fluctuation of loan interest rate’,‘variation of water resources price’, ‘fluctuation of foreign exchange rates’, ‘competitors’ and so on. Finally, strategies of risk management were proposed, including risk minimisation, risk transfer, risk allocation and risk retention.Flood risk management strategies using multi-criteria analysis F. Yazdandoost and B. Bozorgy Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Water Management, 161, No. 5, October, 261–266, doi: 10.1680/wama.2008.161.5.261Flood risk management is investigated in the context of a decision making problem. Various flood risk management strategies are considered the alternatives; the evaluation criteria of such strategies, previously defined in other research, are considered the decision criteria. The concept of ‘resilience’, also introduced in other research, is appropriately addressed in this regard. The application of multi-criteria decision making in flood risk management is demonstrated in a case study of the lower Rhine River. Flood risk management strategies other than the current strategy are defined based on the concept of resilience, and ranking of the strategies based on the flood risk management evaluation criteria is presented. The results are supported by uncertainty analyses to show the effect of uncertainties on the ranking order of the strategies.