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‘CRUSHED BRICKS’ PAPER SUCCESS….

We are pleased to confirm that the final version of a paper by our Dr Andy Goodwin and colleagues has just been accepted for publication later this year in the Proceedings of the ICE – Construction Materials.  Titled “Use of crushed brick in reinforced earth railway structures”, it draws together expertise of Mott MacDonald (Simon Ellis & Dr Chris Hurst), Sheffield Hallam University (Prof Liz Laycock) and Surepath to look at the innovative use of crushed bricks as engineered fill within railway embankments.

This paper follows up Andy’s success in having another paper accepted for publication in the proceedings of the XVI European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in Edinburgh in September 2015.  That paper was the result of our support to URS (now AECOM) in the design of a coastal protection scheme.  Titled “The design of an anchored pile retaining structure to control landslide regression at Lyme Regis, UK”, the authors are Corrado Candian (URS), our Andy Goodwin, and Dimitri Daskalopoulos (URS).

We are very pleased to have worked with our partners on these papers, and look forward to further successes in the future!

NEWS ON NEW STANDARDS & STANDARDS UNDER REVIEW

For those interested in geosynthetics and geotextiles we thought you may wish to know (if you weren’t aware already) that a suite of updates to the current British Standards have been published:

– BS EN 13249:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13250:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13251:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13252:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13253:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13254:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13255:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13256:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13257:2014+A1:2015
– BS EN 13265:2014+A1:2015

The following standards are also under review:

– BS EN ISO 11058:2010
– BS EN ISO 12236:2006
– BS EN ISO 13431:1999
– BS EN ISO 13433:2006

Readers are referred to the BSI for further details about the standards.

CDM 2015 COMES INTO FORCE

Though there is a 6 month grace period on existing projects, CDM 2015 takes effect this week for new projects.  The revised Regulations see the demise of the CDM Coordinator whilst placing greater responsibility on Clients.  Clients now need to appoint a Principal Designer and Principal Contractor to fulfill their duties.

Last minute bookings for our half day course on CDM 2015 in Chesterfield on 27 April can still be made, or we have courses running too in Birmingham on 6 May and Leeds on 15 June.  Running from 8.30am to noon to minimise time out of the office, and costing just £125 plus VAT per delegate, the aim of each course is to provide clear information and guidance on the changes and the actions that will be required from Clients, Designers and Contractors to meet the revised Regulations.  Drawing on the latest guidance it will cover typical questions such as:

  • What effect will the removal of the role of CDM Co-ordinator have?
  • Who will take on the new role of Principal Designer?
  • What are the changes in parameters requiring notification of a scheme to the HSE?
  • How do we manage the change in emphasis over competency?
  • What does it mean to the industry now that domestic works are included in the Regulations?

At the end of the course, attendees should be in a position to assess the actions they need to take in order to successfully adopt the changes in the Regulations.

The course is targeted at industry professionals with an understanding of the CDM 2007 and requiring guidance on the changes.  However, it would also form a useful introduction for graduates, architects and builders who may not have had any real experience of the Regulations to date.

For those wishing a fuller introduction to the Regulations, our next one day course running on 7 September may be more suitable.  Alternatively we have an introductory course on health safety and welfare regulations on 8 June.  Both of these full day courses are running in Chesterfield, and each course costs £220 plus VAT per delegate.

If you require any additional information before making a booking on this or any other course, please contact us at enquiries@surepathtraining.co.uk.  Note too that all courses can be run bespoke for your company if there are sufficient numbers – just contact us by phone (01246 807808) or by using the enquiries email address above for more details.

FREE CPD ON SLOPE STABILITY

For those interested in slope instability issues and embankment failures, an expert report has recently been published on the Mount Polley Tailings storage facility breach in British Columbia on September 4th 2014. Compiled by N. Morgenstern amongst others, it makes for interesting reading. The report may be found here. We consider study of the report an excellent free CPD opportunity as it affords learning on the importance of the integration of ground investigation, geological appraisal, analysis and construction.

For those wishing to deepen their understanding of slope stability issues please feel free to contact us for details on public or bespoke courses we run, or contact us for technical support on your projects.

BSI SNIPPETS – NEW FROST SUSCEPTIBILITY STANDARD & ISO 14001 REVISION

Following on from our latest news on papers to be published in 2015, we thought some may wish to learn of a new BSI publication, PD CEN/TS 13286-54:2014 , that deals with the frost susceptibility of unbound mixtures. Details of the document may be obtained direct from BSI.

In passing, others may wish to know that a revision to ISO 14001 is underway within BSI. An updated version is due to be published in early 2015.