STRUCTURAL OBSERVATIONS---Seminars and Manuals of Practice 1

[henri2]

I'd appreciate some information on available seminars dealing with IBC Structural Observations as well as online courses.

Has any organization or individual published an authoritative concise manual for SO practice?

 

[archeng59]

CASE (council of american structual engineers) has a document for special inspections. you can obtain a copy of this document through the ACEC (american council of engineering companies) website. other than that, I am not aware of another document/guide for observations or inspections.

 

[henri2]

Hi archeng59,

Thanks so much for the response.

I am familiar with that SI document. Pretty good stuff in there. Numerous jurisdictions have also developed manuals which include rules and regulations that go beyond IBC requirements for SI.

Indeed much has been written about SI and BI regarding the "what, when and how", but it appears very little about SO. I wonder why that is.

As we are all aware, SO, SI and BI are part of the three tier QA process required by building codes for certain structures. There has been much done to address QA/QC concerns in recent years as a results of natural disasters. One would imagine that since quite a bit of thought and effort has been expended on developing BI and SI manuals and guidelines, that by now there'd be some authoritative consensus document out there on SO.

 

[archeng59]

not sure why there are no guidelines for SO. may be as simple as no one volunteered to do guidelines. When I went to the jobsite for the first time, I asked my boss what to do. First thing he said was, "do you really have to go?" I said I thought it was required and he said, "no it isn't." In fact, he preferred that I not do site visits. But if I did go, he said watch everything but reminded me that I'm responsible for observing the structural components only, look for anything that isn't what you expected to see with respect to the structural systems, tell the contractor about things that are not in accordance with the drawings, request that he make corrections, document what you saw and what you said to the contractor, make a followup visit to see if he made the corrections (if I wanted to). If I see something about the structural components that I'm not sure about and it appears to be dangerous, call him. If the contractor asks a question, don't give an answer except, "I'll have to check on that." what are your "guidelines" based on experience with older engineers?

 

[henri2]

I truly appreciate your responses aecheng59.

Actually the SO info was primarily intended for a buddy of mine who has a small practice. An architect who supplies him with a good bit of work is concerned about the frequency of visits he makes on jobs which require SO; obviously the architect wants to cut costs.

 

[boffintech]

The IBC has two books that may be of interest:

1. 2003 IBC Understanding and Designing a Special Inspection Program

2. Model Program for Special Inspection

 

[henri2]

Boffintech, I have copies of those two SI documents. Perhaps the state of affairs regarding SO guidelines is best described by archheng59 "not sure why there are no guidelines for SO. may be as simple as no one volunteered to do guidelines". Anyway, I do hope the structural engineering community will get together with the CMT and code enforcement community...then work with ICC to develop 2006 IBC editions of:

1. Understanding and Designing a Structural Observation Program

2. Model Program for Structural Observation

Check Sec 7.6 in this link

http://www.iasonline.org/PDF/AC/ac251.pdf

...for this to be meaningful down the road, it is imperative that guidelines be developed so everyone is on the same page.