There is nothing sexy about building codes. But codes are critical to the safety of structures and those who occupy them. So when the International Code Council announced the availability of its new performance code for buildings earlier this month, it was news of critical importance to the industry (ENR 1/21 p. 13). No less important will be the voting by the National Fire Protection Association, with its different but well-respected "consensus" process that encourages greater input from building product manufacturers, on a competing version in May. Unfortunately, frustrated bystanders such as the Building Owners and Managers Association International regard
Like alcoholics who have announced that they are going on the wagon, the World Bank couldn't resist sneaking one last nip of top-down dambuilding, while promising not to do it again. As a result, the upper Nile River will never be the same again, thanks to the 200-Mw Bujagali Dam in Uganda. In spring 1997, the World Bank and its frequent enemy, World Conservation Network, joined hands in an attempt to find a way through the conflict that has halted dam construction in many developed countries and has made it a hated symbol of technological imperialism in developing lands. They