How much will steel Eurocodes cost?
The Steel Construction Institute seems to think that conversion to the Structural Eurocodes is an inevitability. But has anyone considered the cost to you and me for this transition? And what benefit do we gain from moving to Eurocodes anyway?
Below is a table showing which Eurocode documents will replace BS 5950:1 which covers the majority of general steelwork design. As you can see, the one BS document is replaced by four Eurocodes. And that’s not the only curious difference. For each Eurocode there’s also a National Annex which converts the general European code back into a UK code again. So UK engineers will have to buy a document to convert our way of working into European; and then another document to convert it back to British.
And what do we have to pay for the priviledge of such a convoluted way of working? Over three times as much as before, as you can see from the following graph. The graph shows the cost for BSI members, and guess what? Non members get to pay double.
An unnecessary evil?
The SCI in February brought out the results of their member survey on the adoption of the Eurocodes. Over 75% of respondents said they would only move to Eurocodes “if forced to do so” or never! That’s a very significant majority indeed. And when we consider that the membership of the SCI includes just about every large consultant or contractor involved with steel, it just about amounts to a full scale mutiny against the Eurocodes.
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The (unknown) authors of this article seem to imply that the introduction of the Eurocodes is some plot by the SCI. Far from it. The Eurocodes are a result of a political decision over thirty years ago to remove a barrier to trade. SCI simply seeks to support those wishing to, or forced to, design to the Eurocodes. We do expect them to be inevitable, as they are backed by Governement determination.
As far as the survey goes – best of bad jounrnalism in your comment. You have no idea which companies responded, so your mention of certain names is simply sensational.
David.
Thanks for your comments and thanks for dropping by the website. The article didn’t mean to imply a plot by the SCI. Hopefully my edits have removed that implication and also the “sensational” element. Perhaps you could clarify whether the survey went out to all SCI members, and the sample size?
By the way, in your article in the NSC your pie charts are printed incorrectly both in the printed version and pdf version. Please could you print/post an errata for this?
For anyone interested in David’s full article it can be found at http://www.steelconstruction.org/static/assets/source/NSC1702_feature-9.pdf
Kind regards, Rob
Thank you for your article, just to add more numbers :
Several surveys lead by NCE show that two thirds of civil engineers feel unable to confidently use Eurocodes and 34% of engineers feel comfortable using Eurocodes.
This is the result of a lack of education with only 29% of respondents declared to have had any training about Eurocodes.
Moreover, the online questionnaire survey, which was carried out in July 2009, found that 30% or respondents are currently using Eurocodes, only 1% up on a previous survey in November 2008. However, a further 7% expect to make the switch this autumn, followed by 14% this winter and 34% by next spring – meaning 85% will meet the official full implementation date.
As with all changes, these news codes ask to learn new things but at the same time, it is a great opportunity which is going to open new markets for many European companies within the Eurozone.
Kind Regards