Archive for November, 1998

Phase 1 of the New Passenger and Baggage Handling facilities at Dublin Airport has now been completed. This prestigious project consists of an extension to the existing terminal building for expanded baggage handling facilities, a new airside shopping mall with ancillary offices and construction of Phase 1 of the new passenger Pier designated as Pier C.

New passenger & baggage handling facilities at Dublin Airport

The contract to construct the first section of the Southern Cross Motorway commenced in April 1998 with Ascon as the Contractors. This phase of the project will bring the M50 from Tallaght to near Ticknock, south of Dundrum. The motorway will be 7.2 km long and has 19 significant structures as well as considerable lengths of retaining wall and a river diversion. The bridge designs fall into a variety of categories. Read the rest of this entry »

The new Irish standard for timber design should be available this month. It will replace SR11 and bridges the gap from the current information until the release of Eurocode 5 for timber.

The strength classes are those now being harmonised throughout Europe using C references. In Ireland C14, C16 and C18 are likely to be the most common grades in use. The ‘C’ signifies coniferous wood and the number reflects the characteristic bending strength of the timber. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you noticed that the latest amendment to the Buildings Regulations, 1997 now permits the use of BS 6399: Part 2: Wind loads instead of CP3: Chapter V? We have found that some structures are subject to much higher loads under BS 6399: Part 2 than those required of CP3: Chapter V. We would appreciate your comments and experiences when using the newly permitted code. Surely if the wind loads are too low in CP3 Chapter V we should be using BS 6399 only for safety.

Colin Short
Colin Short Associates Consulting Engineers

The safety aspects of edge barriers for Multi-Storey Car Parks were highlighted in recent times, particularly following the accident in Canterbury in January 1996 when a car broke through the edge barrier on the fourth floor of a Multi-Storey Car Park (M.S.C.P.) causing serious injury to the driver. Read the rest of this entry »

Sean Brady

The winner of this year’s prize for the best undergraduate project in Structures was Sean Brady of Trinity College Dublin. The project involved an investigation of the use of existing road bridges to weigh trucks as they travel across at full highway speed. He developed a model of the dynamic interaction between the truck and the bridge to determine the errors that dynamics induce. Sean, a native of Cavan, is currently doing post-graduate research at University College Dublin. The runner up was Michael O’Brien of the Dublin Institute of Technology.