Provocative Yet Balanced The Firestop Contractors International Association (FCIA) salutes ENR for the "False Alarms" cover story (ENR 6/7 p. 46). ENR presented multiple sides of the fire protection story throughout the country. FCIA believes there may not be a need to design buildings to stand up to 9/11-type attacks. But buildings should be designed to the triad of fire protection: effective compartmentation, alarms and detection, and suppression systems. No single part of the system is the answer to all fire and life safety concerns. Firestopping typically is about 0.5% of total building cost, and can be less than 50
Dont Blame Steel We at the National Steel Bridge Alliance would like to take issue that steel is a key factor in bizarre bidding on San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge suspension span, as reported in Way-High Single Bid Stymies State Officials (ENR 6/7 p. 10). Lets assume that the bridge uses all domestic steel and that the price increase for steel since the beginning of the year is 60%. The price of steel plate today averages about 43¢ a pound. A 60% increase means that the price of steel rose 16¢ per pound since the beginning of the year. The article
Distortion The Building and Construction Trades Dept. of the AFL-CIO has once again issued another of its politically motivated attacks on Associated Builders and Contractors, its chapters and member companies. BCTD claims in the article Union Groups Lob Volatile Accusation at 22 ABC Chapters to have uncovered certain tax discrepancies in reports filed by a few ABC chapters for their tax treatment of insurance-related income (ENR 6/14 p. 7). The attack is both distorted and misleading. Our preliminary research into the allegations shows the union has maligned a select number of ABC chapters without legal or factual basis. In particular,
Image Partnership Intact Iam writing to correct an error in your editorial "Industry Image Initiative" (ENR 5/10 p. 48). In the article you state, "the [National Construction Image] committee no longer is affiliated with NCCER," which is incorrect. The consensus of the committee was that affiliation with NCCER was important to the image effort and should continue. Three years ago, when the National Construction Image Summit launched the committee, NCCER realized that the image effort must be an industry-wide initiative and not a NCCER program. NCCER assumed and has maintained the role of facilitator. Through the work of many dedicated
Questioning Dampers The story "Transparent Curtain Walls Perform Well in Blast Tests" attributes innovative concepts to the improved performance of structures to blast loadings (ENR 5/3/04 p. 18). Although responding (non-rigid) window frames are known to outperform non-responding (rigid) window frames, the article doesnt demonstrate how dampers actually reduced "the effective pressure" on facade elements tenfold. Dampers have been considered for blast-resistant design of building components in the past and have been rejected. Unlike seismic excitation, which involves multiple cycles of relatively low frequency base motion, for which dampers are very effective, blast loading is characterized by a single sudden
Tunnel Collapse The article "Singapore Tunnel Team May Have Cut Corners" said that the collapse of the mass transit tunnel excavation caused the deaths of three construction workers and an inspector, and also rendered two buildings unsafe (ENR 5/17 p. 12). This is incorrect. The surrounding buildings near the incident site have been assessed to be safe for use. This was highlighted in our press releases and reported extensively by the media. The two vacant units to which the article referred and found to have suffered damages to key structural elements are located in the Upper Paya Lebar Road area,
Nuclear Benefits The nuclear industry is hung up on obsolete justifications for nuclear power (ENR 4/12 p. 13). Nuclear offers a lot more than zero emissions and slightly lower energy costs. We need to end oil dependence, especially on OPEC oil, by switching to a hydrogen economy. Huge quantities of hydrogen need electrical conversion of water to hydrogen. Despite denials by our uninformed populace, the only energy sources to produce an adequate amount of electrical power are fossil fuels and nuclear. Mega nuclear plants are unnecessarily expensive for numerous reasons including minimal standardization and public demands to assure radiation safety
Balancing Beauty Iam grateful ENR covered the Millau Viaduct project (ENR 3/15 p. 24). It helps us all as engineers to see great achievement. Sharing our knowledge helps improve our profession. As a civil engineer I am confronted by the gap between engineering and beauty and between cost and value on a daily basis. The Millau Viaduct perfectly captures the right balance. With the windy conditions, the rocky bottom, the enormous length and the requirements from the French government, the designers did a great job. The bridge of Millau is an engineering work on which we can be proud to
Iraq Documentary Is Now Playing on enr.com Opening the door to a new capability, visitors to enr.com can now see our first streamed video, a seven-minute movie about this years Award of Excellence winner, U.S. Army Col. Gregg F. Martin and the reconstruction of Iraq. The video went live April 22, the result of persistent efforts by ENRs IT editor, Tom Sawyer, McGraw-Hill Construction's Alice Matthews, manager of Web design and production, and Richard Rodriguez, director of online marketing. The documentary was produced by Ken Mandel from Great Projects Film Co. and was shown at ENRs Award of Excellence event.
Recently, while visiting the ENR Website, I was intrigued by a request to take part in an instant poll addressing jobsite theft. The poll listed specific tangible items such as tools, materials, equipment and the like. As a staff archi- tect for an architectural firm, these items are not in our realm of everyday objects that we encounter in the storage cabinet or workplace. Sure, many of our colleagues make off with pencils, whiteout, paper clips and such, though their disappearance hardly affects the profitability of the firm. But one area of jobsite theft that unfortunately often is tolerated and