Ethics, what advice do you have? 5

[Lions]

I want to run a hypothetical situation past the professionals on this forum for a “what would you do” answer.

A truss designer of limited experience joins a company and over time, realizes there is a big problem. He designes, permits, and has built houses that have never been reviewed by a real engineer. Not to say the company doesn’t have a real engineer, but this engineer has never actually physically seen any of these drawings. He relies on the individual truss designers, to use their judgment on what works and what does not. Thousands of homes have been built this way, and countless problems have occurred. The company has done an Enron style cover up for so long, they have it down to a science. Now, the designer does not have an engineering degree, and doesn’t know quite how to begin to approach this problem, so he sits on it, trying to figure out what to do. He knows when/if this is made public, he has inadvertently become an accomplice to this and is scared out of his mind. He has a family and needs to support them, but he wants to do what is right, but he doesn’t know what the right thing is. What advice would you give him? Remember, this is all hypothetical.

 

[jsummerfield]

I viewed and listened to a web presentation by an engineering attorney Kerry C. Williams that applies to your long-term concerns. This was presented at a professional society meeting in Houston last month. You and the company might have some protection by statutes. A statute of repose in your state may limit people from suing engineers and designers. Although the time differs by state, perhaps after time such as 10 years an entity cannot be sued regardless of how bad the work was. Some work is also covered by a statute of limitations.

See the article on stature of repose and more at the following site

http://www.chamberlainlaw.com

Also go to houstonisa.org to listen to an audio string and follow along with the pdf presentation at the following site:

http://houstonisa.org/February_2005_Monthly_Meeting.htm

and download the pdf presentation and click the audio.

Regards,

John

 

[Slugger926]

JAE (Structural) 24 Feb 05 12:32
This reminds me of a wood truss collapse that I was called in to investigate a few years ago. A farmer (hog farmer with a Construction Engineering degree from a major university) had decided to construct a large (80' x 350') hog confinement barn. It was all wood framed with insulated/plastic panels. The hogs lived in steel cages inside.

The roof collapsed one winter with a 36" drift on the leeward side. Hogs still all snug and warm underneath as the cages kept the roof from falling on them.

It ended up that the truss fabricator had "designed" the trusses for 20 psf live load....this barn was located in an area with a ground snow load of 45 psf. When depositioned, the truss designer stated that they "just put into the computer the standard roof live loads that they always did". The farmer had been asked "what kind of truss do you want" and he just replied "just a standard truss to span 80 feet".

The truss cut sheet was not sealed because this was an agricultural building so no code applied legally. But it goes to show that lots of wood trusses are designed with "computer operators" who don't really know what they are doing. And the engineer's supervising them don't really spend a lot of time reviewing / checking the designs.
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This is not true about no codes applying. There are ASAE standards that apply to Agricultural buildings. The codes concerning the Snow and Wind loadings for this building would have been under ASAE EP288.5 DEC92. These can be found at

http://www.ASAE.org.

I have been confirming snow and wind loads for several buildings in Oklahoma. One catch here in Oklahoma, if the building is under $40,000 and isn't housing people, there is no need for a PE to legally sign off on the agricultural building even though there are Standards that apply and the builder will be libel for.

There are standards for HVAC units for agricultrual buildings, and emergency ventilation as well on a side note. I had a friend who lost 25 $25K dogs at his kennels because his newly installed HVAC locked up last summer in defrost mode and he didn't have any emergency ventilation. Having Licensed engineers doing proper design affects everyone including proffessional dog trainers.