Stopping Corruption I absolutely agree with Rich Bishop’s Viewpoint: curbing corruption will require a uniform professional code of conduct (ENR 1/31 p. 51). With the cost of corruption estimated at $400 billion annually worldwide for government expenditures on public contracting, it is time for the individual engineer to step up and fight global construction corruption. Recognizing this, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the World Bank, Transparency International and 65 other professional engineering and design societies in the U.S. and worldwide are working to curb bribery, fraud and corruption with a zero tolerance approach. This month, ASCE plans to circulate
Reform Management Model Your call for more team building in the editorial on the collapse at the airport terminal in Paris asks all parties to shake off adversarial pressures and work more tightly as a team (ENR 2/21 p. 56). And, as you note happened after the Hyatt collapse, there will be calls for more oversight and communication. We agree that such calls will have little impact on an industry dedicated to the fantasy that the highest project performance can be achieved by getting the lowest price for each piece. Having said that, changes in procurement, oversight, communications and team
Monitors and Liability In the article "Smart Concrete; Building Brains into Concrete can Save Money and Time," Samir Shoukry states that sensor and instrumentation technology must be very carefully used. Equally important is carefully planning how the collected data will be interpreted, distributed and used. When everything goes as expected, sensor technology is a useful tool that benefits everyone involved, but how does it affect issues of warranty and liability? Unless all interested parties agree, it is almost impossible to implement this technology. Uni-Systems designed, manufactured and installed the mechanization for the retractable roof at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
Subscribers Get Full Access to New enr.com You have probably already noticed some new features on our Website, enr.com. You will be seeing more of them roll out soon. The site moved to a new model this week that offers subscribers full access to all contentincluding the full content of the print magazine, never before posted to the Web. The Website allowed us to display winning entries from our annual photo contest in an easy-to-view slide show. And in a collaboration with the American Society of Civil Engineers, we posted first-person accounts from three teams of experts who traveled to
Toward Better Design I read the article "Engineers Caution Against Overreaction," and as a former structural engineer, I couldn’t agree more with the dissenting voices (ENR 1/25 p. 10). The reasons for the collapse of the trade center towers and a portion of the Pentagon were many faceted. Not only did the buildings sustain huge loads, via impact of the airplanes, the fuel caused fire to erupt. This is a deadly combination. The 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, albeit a natural disaster, unleashed a similar terror from fires from ruptured gas lines. We cannot base building design on extreme events,
Successful Education We find it necessary to take exception to a comment in your editorial, "Industry and Academics Need to Hunt for Success" (ENR 12/6/04 p. 64). For the students in construction programs, there is no decrease in enrollment. In fact, in the 67 programs accredited by the American Council for Construction Education and the 10 candidate programs, every program is growing by double digits, except for those programs which have grown so fast and stretched their resources so much that they have had to limit their enrollment with higher entrance qualifications. There is clearly a growing need, and demand,
Show the Reality The comments in the recent letters column on safety are very interesting and right on target, except that the comments are misdirected (ENR 1/31 p. 4 ). The individuals should not be chastising ENR for showing construction activities the way they really are. The comments should be directed to the contractors, owners, unions, subcontractors, insurance companies and OSHA personnel who continue to condone such inappropriate work methods. I appreciate that ENR shows the reality of the construction industry’s attitude toward safety. By showing the lack of safety, especially on major projects, ENR is doing us a favor
Irwin In the wake of President Bush’s re-election, the war on terrorism and the reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan continues unabated. Contractors working in Iraq and Afghanistan face tough challenges, including an increasingly perilous security environment, coupled with much public scrutiny worldwide. But on top of that, working in the region often involves dealing with a difficult overlay of U.S. sanctions, laws and regulations. Few people are aware of the complexity and broad scope of such sanctions and many do not appreciate the fine efforts by many companies to adhere to these rules in a most challenging environment. Economic sanctions
Too Many Violations Iam a long-time subscriber of ENR and have always admired the best construction magazine in the business. Having said that, I hope you will not take unkindly to my following comments. I was appalled and amazed at the many safety and code violations shown in the picture on the cover of the issue, "Images of the Year in Construction" (ENR 12/27/ 04). I hope that you will contact any safety engineer of your choice and discuss this with him or her. I would also suggest this be done prior to publishing. The ironworkers’ gear is the worst
Supporting WTC Design In his letter to the editor, WTC Disagreements, Lawrence Fisher stated that the World Trade Center towers might have been more resilient if they had been configured with a strong and stiff perimeter structure (ENR 11/29/03 p. 5). In fact, they were. The structural system used in the towers was a very strong and stiff perimeter lateral and gravity system with a gravity-only core system. I strongly support the premise of the original article that there was nothing wrong with the design of the World Trade Center towers. CHARLES J. CARTER Chief Structural Engineer/American Institute of Steel
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