Engineering: September 2009 Archives

It was a fault in its structure that made a part of the roof of the new domestic terminal, 1D, of the Indira Gandhi International Airport blow off on August 21 due to strong winds and leak in several places, said a source at the airport. Flight

operations at IGI Airport had to be shut for nearly two hours after a 30 minute heavy downpour. There was flooding in the new terminal 1D because the ceiling leaked at several places and a part of the roof near Gate 14 had crashed.

Airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) on Tuesday said in a statement that investigations carried out by the four-member committee are still on and the committee has sought time till October 15 to complete its report and suggest remedial measures. The committee is comprised of RSSLN Bhaskarudu, Independent Director (DIAL); P Seth, nominee of the Airports Authority of India; P S Nair, CEO (DIAL) and Prof (Dr) Meher Prasad, Structural Engineering Expert from IIT Chennai.

Excerpted from expressindia.com. 

Engineering expert Raymod Rase, of the engineering firm Specs, Inc., met with the Luke, Maryland, Mayor and Town Council this week to brief town officials on a new storm-water runoff ordinance that will govern new development but “grandfather” existing homes and other structures.  The expert presented the state-mandated ordinance, which takes a nine-page document that had governed stormwater runoff since 2000, and expanded it to a regulatory package more than 2 inches thick. Like revisions to sewage treatment systems that required the $26 million sewer plant upgrade just north of Westernport, Rase said the changes were prompted by concern for the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

Rase noted that existing homes, businesses and parking lots will not be affected. The act will only apply to new construction, including any building projects that NewPage may undertake.  “This is for new construction, it's not yet retroactive,” he said. “As long as everything stays as is, you don't have to do anything.”  Rase said the new law provides local government little latitude in applying the various provisions. “This isn't something we really have a lot of choice on,” he said. The town has until November to adopt a draft ordinance. A final ordinance must be adopted by next spring.

Excerpted from www.newstribune.info

The capital’s high rises were left largely unscathed after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the island of Java Wednesday, with cracks on floors and walls the only tell-tale signs a temblor had occurred. This, experts said, was proof that Jakarta was in a good position to withstand further quakes. “With the earthquake today, no building collapsed even though the magnitude was quite strong,” said architecture expert Budi Sukanda, chairman of the Indonesian Association of Architects, adding that most buildings in Indonesia would survive a 7.0-magnitude quake.  He added that a 1985 city regulation required new buildings to be quake resistant, but that buildings constructed earlier than that had already implemented quake-proof measures.

Adang Surahman, an earthquake engineering expert, said most buildings in Jakarta could withstand a horizontal acceleration of up to 20-30 percent of gravity, an engineering measure of the side-to-side movement of buildings. Stronger than that, he said, most buildings would collapse.  “The earthquake we have just experienced was only around a 5 percent horizontal acceleration, so we were relatively safe.”

Excerpted from thejakartaglobe.com.