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'COLLAPSING BUILDINGS: THE WAY OUT' PRESENTED AT THE PUBLIC PRESENTATION OF BOOK ON STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING IN NIGERIA – THE JOURNEY SO FAR.THISDAY, 16TH OCTOBER, 2003. BY ENGR. BOSUN OKE Please permit me to start on the presentation of this paper with my hearty congratulation to Engr.B.O. Ometan, the author of the Book “Structural Engineering in Nigeria.”
INTRODUCTION
It is indeed well known all over the World that Engineers have been playing a substantial role in the attainment of the quality of life we all enjoy today. I am not going to dabble into the areas of transportation systems, electric power generation, transmission and distribution ,clean potable water, communications ,etc because these provisions have come from other specialized Engineering disciplines in which I am a layman .I am therefore confirming myself to the large contribution from the Structural Engineers.
Small and Large buildings including high rise for:
- Residential – House, Estates, Hostels, Block of Flats, etc.
- Commercial – Office Buildings, Hotels, Shop Plazas,etc.
- Industrial – Factories, Warehouses,etc
- Industrial- Assembly +Town, Halls, Schools, Hospitals,etc.
- Social + Recreational – Sport Stadia, SwimmingPools, etc.
Also underground, Ground and Elevated Water Tanks, Dams, Elevated Motorways and Bridges are all projects in which Structural Engineers are responsible in bringing their professional judgment to the service of the clients by advising, planning, and preparing detailed designs, working drawings and contract documents and by supervising construction.
These are all parts of a Nation’s demand for the development that enrich quality of life and these achievements are better appreciated in the proper perspective if we can visualize a world without Structural Engineering.
All the elegant, stable, safe and economical designed structures that make up our cities and towns, and which have been accomplished in virtual anonymity because Structural Engineering by their sheer modesty which is common to most if not all Engineers have refused or neglected to take credit by telling the World about all the Good Works we do, which would not have been possible without the considerable expertise of competent Structural Engineers.
The structures that attract public attention are the few that have been handled by people without adequate Structural Engineering knowledge or training to carry out the Structural analysis or/and construction .An example is the Learning Tower of Pisa which is today one of the World’s tourist attractions.
All structures must be safe; they involve the public and because many lives are entrusted to the structure’s strength or failure must therefore be very remote as the consequences are usually grave.
The commonest signs of failure or distress in structures are excessive deflection, cracks, tilting, sinking, or the totality which is collapsing building which I intend to tackle fewer than two main sub-headings of:
- Competent Structural Engineers with adequate expertise and experience whose work guarantee economical, stable and safe structures and
- Non – Structural Engineers who are the main causes of structural failures.
Recommendations for avoidance of failures will touch on expectations from:
- Governments and Educational Institutions
- Local Government, approving authorities and control.
- Standard Organization of Nigeria.
- Professional Bodies – COREN/ARCON/NIQS/CORBON/NSE/NIStructE
COMPETENT STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS.
Competent Structural Engineers must be Corporate Members of the Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers. (A division of the Nigerian Society Of Engineers) Corporate Membership calls for high academic full time or Sandwich Course at a University or College leading to a degree in Competent Structural Engineering, or in Civil Engineering
With consistent and heavy bias to Structural Engineering. Other Civil Engineering graduates with the bias in highway, Water or other areas of specialization should not extend responsibility beyond own area of specialization by assuming control over structural aspects for which they are untrained.
Degree from an accredited Institution merits exemption from Parts 1 & 2 of the institution's Examination, after which employment that offers the broadest employment that offers the broadest possible opportunity of obtaining proper training and professional experience is sought to enable, after a minimum of 2 years, a degree of competence to tackle the Institution's Final Qualifying Examination –Part 3: Structural Engineering Design and Practice. The Part 3 Examination is a 7 hour paper with the freedom to bring into the Examination hall any books, drawings, specifications and whatever, yet only a small percentage of candidates prove competent enough to produce the sound schemes that satisfy the Examiners. Unlike some other professional bodies interview on project handled in offices, it is indeed a test of one’s competence in working out a solution to an Engineering design problem completely on one’s own, in an Examination Hall environment.
Success in the part 3 Examination and the fulfillment of appropriate training and professional experience requirements, qualify one for the Institution.
Structural Engineering practice: It is important to note that the field of Structural Engineering practice is getting wider and it is near impossible to acquire expertise in all the different sections as defined by the specified design materials which are:
- Structural Concrete-Reinforced, Pre-cast, Pre-stresses.
- Structural Steel Work
- Masory
- Timber
- Aluminium, etc
For the different materials, an experienced competent Structural Engineer in say Reinforced Concrete Structure may not have the ability to spot weakness in the analysis and detailing of the Structural Steel Work or prestressed concrete or timber structures concrete or timber structures. A competent Structural Engineer must therefore stick to his area of expertise that earned the Part 3 Examination success and refer other aspects to colleagues who specialize in such areas.
Professional practice is not really a business to be traded like a commodity, it is expertise and experience in services that are being rendered in exchange for compensation that has to be valued and performance based.
Importance of sub-soil Investigation Report: A competent Structural Engineer at all times appreciates the importance of the services of the other experts that compliment the professional objective of a stable and safe structure .The Sub-siol Investigation Report of the soil Engineer which supplies the data for the design and construction method of the sub-structures is very important to the structural Engineer’s super-structure as that will enable the adequate design of the supporting foundations.
It is dangerous to rely on assumptions and assessment from trial pits in place of benefiting from the expert services of a proper sul soil investigation. The approving authorities in Abuja now demand the Proposed Site’s sub –soil Investigation Report along with other documents to be submitted for processing building approvals. This welcome development is recommended to all Local Government in the country, considering that lack of siol repots cause a number of structural failures. The total sinking of some structures in the Onike area of Lagos around the rear entrance into the University of Lagos, and some others learning structures are examples found around.
The Soil Engineer is as important to the Structural Engineer as he is to the Architect/Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. A beautiful Architectural design with its services will turn into ugly ruins if the services of a competent Structural Engineer are not employment .Similarly a stable, safe, and economically designed superstructure has to be supported on equally safe foundation.
Ethics: A competent Structural Engineer is always a professional and guards very jealously the ethics because the responsibity carried on the shoulders is well appreciated to prevent any mess. He will not sell the profession cheap by endorsing for personally handled or meticulously checked in exchange for a token charge.
Full and complete comprehensive professional services are rendered by competent Structural Engineers who frown at Contractor’s telephone inquiry for details from the design office. Thus remunerations for full services are neither negotiated nor discounted.
Continuing Development Structural Engineering practice has been evolving radically over the years and a competent Structural Engineer has to continually be updating self by attending conferences and going through new publications.
Supervision: An effective supervision of construction works to ensure contract documents and specifications are strictly adhered to contribute immensely to the erection of stable and safe structures.
NON – STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS OR INCOMPETENT STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS.
It is the responsibility of the client to ensure a reputable Structural Engineer handled his Structural Project and prepares the Structural design and details. It is also professional unethical for an Engineer to claim competences beyond his skill; no Engineers should be cleaver than is necessary
While it is true that history recorded Engineering as just one profession until those in the Military got to known as Military Engineers and the civilians as the Civil Engineers. That was at the beginning, and things have since changed from ‘Jack of al trade’ period. There are today more than 30 specialized Engineering disciplines, one of which is the Structural Engineering that was founded in 1908 about 6 years before the birth or amalgation of the Country Nigeria.
Qualifying today as a Civil Engineer therefore does not in any way automatically confer on one of the status of a Structural Engineer and vice versa. All corporate Structural Engineer aspirants are welcome to prove themselves by mandatory taking and passing the 7 –hour part 3 Corporate Examination of the Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers.
It is not right for anybody with an elementary knowledge to want to be practice in as an expert who is expected to know so much about so little. There is just a thin line between success and failure in Structural Engineering; underestimation makes a structure hazardous whilst over estimation in excess of that occurring in reality is wasteful and detrimental to the economy.
A serious threat to the practice of Structural Engineering in Nigeria is that of some unscrupulous professional who claim to have a multi-disciplinary practice or a consortium. There is usually only one or two professional in Architecture or/and Quantity Surveying with Structural Draughtsman or technician in charge of the Structural works.COREN,ARCON,NIQS have to wake up to stop this notorious and shameful swindling of clients and the damaging repercussions on the professions.
I am seizing this opportunity to appeal to some of our Quantity Surveyors or friends who are mow busy exploiting the friendly association they have with some political heavyweights in the corridors of power to want influence a change in the mode and understanding of professional practice in Nigeria. A disservice is being done to these “corridors of power” friends in exposing the limitations of their exposure and understanding. There is a way lobbying can confer on one the expertise that has not been acquired through education, trading and experience.
The fact remains that what this Country inherited from the British as the duties and obligations of the consultants in the Construction Industry is very clear. Why the current struggle to take over some Engineering duties? Is it just for the fees? Or is it a recent realization of hidden capacity to offer better services?
It s surprising that these Quantity Surveyors lobbyists have not shown any interest in taking over the quantities services part of the Structural Engineer’s duties. The Structural Engineers have always given all the numbers, sizes, and dimensions of the entire Structural element and the Bar bending Schedules with only the recording to effect the taking off and the arithmetic to complete the squaring.
In fact some Quantity Surveyors still appear not to have a clear understanding of the volume of work the Structural Engineers go through before the preparation of the Bar Bending Schedules they request for shortly after commission of projects. Let it be known that the General Arrangement Drawings have to be prepared first, after which the Design calculations are prepared and used in preparing the Working Drawings from which the Bar Bending schedules are prepared.However, in cases of urgency, Reinforcement Estimate which are usually about 5-10% in or out can be provided by the Structural Engineer immediately the Design calculations are completed. This is preferable to the Quantity Surveyor’s Rule of Thumb method of adopting 3% of the Concrete Volume which at times is way out, because in structural Reinforcement Concrete, the more the Volume of Concrete used, the less the steel reinforcement required.
The Structural Engineer’s Bending Schedule Reinforcement is the legal part of the Contract Document and the tonnage should be the same as what the Client pays for. In recent times, there is reported to be a significant difference in some cases between the tonnage in the Bill and the Bending Schedule’s tonnage. The Quantity Surveyor should ensure the correct tonnage is the Structural Engineer’s who has the reinforcement specified and detailed.
What the Quantity Surveyor lobbyists have used their contact in effecting is bringing the Quantity Surveyor’s fees up nearly at par with the Structural Engineer’s with the duties remaining as before when the Quantity Surveyor fees was about 50% of the Structural Engineer’s. If it is inflation that has brought up the Quantity Surveyors fees, it is only fair that the Structural Engineer’s fees are also prorated as per the volume of work or services being rendered.
Let the political heavyweights in the corridors of power get as enlightened as necessary instead of allowing themselves to misled by friends or contacts into taking decisions that will not project Nigeria to the outside World that this Nation is not knowledgeable enough to know what is required to make us progress.
It is checkable what the Engineers and Quantity Surveyors do in other countries of the world’s Construction Industry. One fact is that you’ll find Engineers at work everywhere, the same is not true of Quantity Surveyors as it is known, USA is one of the countries that does not use the services of the Quantity Surveyors .Finding out who renders the services of engineering duties that some Quantity Surveyors are struggling for here will definitely be of great help. Surely, efficient, adequate and expert services and remuneration should be confined to professionalism and not political or corridors of power lobbying.
APPROVING AUTHORITIES & MONITORING
Structures for reaction in the country all over the Country have to be approved before the commencement of Construction works and the execution has to be monitored right from the foundation to the roof.
Projects for the Federal, State Government, and Institutions: The approving authorities have always been the Ministries of Works, Housing and Institutions Directorates of Works, where professional Engineers are employed to perform the duties inclusive of the supervision of works.
Commercial and Private Development: Effective coverage warrants the zoning of the approvals and monitoring of projects in each Local Government Area to the Area Local Government Headquarters where there must be a council Office for Works. It is important that the Officers in charge should always have adequate training and experience and the person with overall responsibility should always be an experienced competent Structural Engineer.
Along with the Design Calculations and the working drawing to be submitted for approval processing should be added the Sub-soil Investigation Report of the proposed Site to enable checking that the Foundation design and details are in conformity with the soil data. The document are to bear the COREN seal and stamp showing the Structural Engineer’s title ,and a letter of undertaking to supervise the project from the foundation to the Roof is also essential.
The essence of granting approval should not just be a formality but an opportunity for cross- checking that the scheme proposal is sound, stable, safe and economical. It is a well known fact that an Engineering problem to 10 Engineers will most likely result in 10 different Engineering solutions. The submission does not necessarily have to agree with the Officers’ approach but it must clearly appear as another right solution. In case of any further clarification required, the approving Officer should feel free to invite the Client’s Consultant for satisfactory explanation and should in turn be able to sell his own reasoning to the consultant because the two have to agree .It therefore goes without saying that for this sort of exercise to be meaningful and useful, the approving Officer has to be an experienced, competent Structural Engineer.
Building Materials : All building materials supplies of steel Reinforcement, Cement, Solid & Hollow Blocks ,Screen and Hollow pots, Seasoned Timber, clean well graded Gravels/Granite, Sand etc should have their business premises registered with the Council and be fee paying annually to allow for checking on the materials being accordance with the specification of the Standards Organization of Nigeria.
CONSTRUCTION WORKS: The drawings checked and approved for the construction work will only be useful if the building Contractors are staffed with people who can read, understand and interpreted drawings. It is therefore important that the Contractors operating in each Local Government Area have to register with Council and be charged quarterly fees to cover the Construction period. The Council is to make Registration with CORBON, a condition before being allowed to undertake Construction Works in the Local Government Area and the Council has to check at random on the technical staff throughout the Construction period of the Structural Shell and Roof.
Supervision: The construction work has to be effectively supervised by the council staff to ensure the approved drawings are strictly adhered to. It will also help to sanitize the construction Industry if the council Structural Engineer attends the Consultants’ monthly meeting. The Council’s Technical Officers have to monitor the whole Local Government Area very closely so as to be conversant with every Construction Works and alert the council boss as at when necessary. By so doing, it will be impossible to start any Construction in the area without knowing and illegal structures will not to reach the roof level before they are marked RED for demolition.
Funding:
These duties and the personnel required will cost some money. Life is sacred and no amount is too high to spend in order to save lives. The projects in the area will have to be charged fees to cover all the funding with the suggested following:-
- Approval Processing Fees.
- Building materials premises fees.
- Building Contractors Registration Fees and quarterly charges over construction period.
- Council Monthly Supervision Fees.
STANDARD ORGANIZATION OF NIGERIA
Have some jobs to do in sanitizing the sources, specifications and manufacture of the building materials for the Construction Works in Nigeria.
All depots, premises for storage and yards for the manufacture of building construction materials have to be registered with SON. Which means that no building materials to be manufactured supplied or sold outside the registered areas? All block making factories at the road sides and under bridges without any specifications are to be stopped from producing. All imported or locally manufactured Steel reinforcement bars are to have the certificate of manufacture indicating the Steel strength, and short lengths are to be randomly cut and sent to the laboratories for testing at the sellers’ expense for confirmation on every bulk intake .the cement supply have to satisfy required specifications and the storage has to be organized to ensure the period of keep is limited to avoid caking. Gravel /Granite have to be clean, sieved and well graded with 10mm to 20mm, for supply to Construction Site. Timber has to well seasoned before sale for Construction Works.
It is nice to know that SON has started destroying sub-standard materials, because the ‘DORA AKUNYILI’ spirit is needed to sanitize the Building Materials stock and supply for those who are genuinely interested and ready for the business.
Funding of SON duties is to be shouldered by the Building Materials Dealers in form of annual registration fees and other fees as considered necessary.
GOVERNMENTS & INSTITUTION
We do not appear to be giving any serious consideration to planning in this our blessed Country. What is more surprising is that we choose to neglect the areas required to promote our development and progress. In the very important area of man-power development, we choose not to plan for our needs. Around 1975/76 a committee was set up on the new Capital City and Abuja was decided upon. A complete New City was being planned but it never occurred to us to plan the training of Engineers, other professionals and technicians that would be required nor set up factories that would produce some of the building materials that would be needed to build the New City. Of course, we are used to spending our resources to develop foreign countries. We planned on the use of foreign consultants and contractors, and of course the importation of building materials with the crumbs left over for Nigerians.
A nation’ demand for development and re-construction and for higher living standards based on improved productivity means that the need for qualified Structural Engineers is continuous and expanding. Yet this Country made no provision at all of the training of Structural Engineers. The present crop of Nigerian Structural Engineers trained abroad and with the present rate of exchange, it’s not easy to continue relying on other countries to use their resources to train us for the development of our own country.
It is only recently that the Nigerian Institute of Structural Engineers at last succeeded in getting the Nigerian University Commission to see the wisdom in accepting to have Structural Engineers trained locally. There is now only one of the 55 universities in the country that offers a course in Structural Engineering.
This country needs the services of Structural Engineers and it is hoped that the Federal and State Government together with the Institution will give this issue the favorable consideration it urgently deserves.
I thank you for listening
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