FCE 2013 probes facets of forensic civil engineering

Good infrastructure and housing being the need of the hour in the country, construction is bound by time crunches and many a times, compromises on the quality of construction. Fast track construction without monitoring on the quality is prevailing and that in turn leads to mishaps and structural failures consuming lives. It is at this juncture, Forensic Civil Engineering garners a prime relevance. The practice of forensic engineering within the field of infrastructure management has grown in response to the increasing number of building structures needing repair or replacement and to find out reasons to comprehend collapses. In order to uphold the ethics of quality engineering services and offer better constructed structures, Association of Consulting Civil Engineers (India) organized a Conference & Exhibition on Forensic Civil Engineering-2013 (FCE-2013) in Bangalore.

The event was an appropriate platform to exchange information and discuss issues of forensic engineering. Several eminent experts in the field of forensic engineering participated, conferred and proposed way outs to bring in best practices in the construction industry to preclude the construction failures and losses. Former Chief Justice of India, Justice M N Venkatachaliah along with other dignitaries commenced the event by lighting the lamp.

Evidently, all the forensic engineering veterans concurred at a single point of view that a set of guidelines have to be developed and need of accrediting engineers with necessary skills. Emphasising on similar outlook, B S C Rao, Imm Past President, Chairman Organising Committee, ACCE (I), said, "To mitigate construction failures, at the outset, we should acknowledge the existence of systemic problems and proceed towards addressing the same. Unlike in foreign countries, we do not follow having certified and accredited engineers on the sites. We have to reform this to bring the best in construction."

The roles and responsibilities of medical, chartered and law professionals have been defined in the judiciary where as it gives a miss for civil engineering fraternity. Mr. P. Surya Prakash, president, ACCE(I), said, "There is an imperative need to have an engineering bill to be passed that will have clear roles and accountabilities of a civil engineer. From ACCE (I), which is an organization member, we are taking active role to get the bill introduced in the Parliament."

Mr. Chew Keat Chuan, director, Building Division of Building and Construction Authority, Singapore shared how safety and quality as their utmost priority in regulating the structures at Singapore through his presentation 'The Impact of Building Failures on Building Regulations-The Experience of Singapore'. Dr. N Krishnamurthy, Structures and Safety Consultant, Singapore gave impeccable information on 'Investigative Methods in FCE' and 'Experiences of An Expert Witness'. Several case studies on Canal failures, Techno-Legal Assessment for Claims were discussed by Mr. Amol Shingarey, Geotech Services and Mr. P Surya Prakash, president, ACCE (I) respectively.

Bridges are the back bones of highway and railway infrastructure. It is therefore important to take remedial action promptly if and defects are noticed or if the bridge requires to be upgraded. Only with frequent periodic inspections can such defects be identified timely. Dr. Mahesh Tandon, Tandon Consultants discussed through his presentation, ‘Remedial Measures for Bridges’.  Guidelines for Forensic Investigation of Geotechnical Failures were given by Dr. V V S Rao, Nagadi Consultants. The failure of structures during their construction and service life has seen an upward trend in the recent days. Challenging designs, demanding timeframes and unmanageable hugeness of projects are said to be primary causes of the often premature structural failures. Many a time, the construction stage monitoring had revealed that the behaviour of the structural members during their construction and or erection was far different to what had been envisaged by the designer, said Mr. M N Ramesh, Enstrectura Consultants while informing audience through his talk on 'Bridge Structural Health Monitoring.  Nitti-gritty aspects of forensic civil engineering were also discussed by the forensic civil engineering experts including Mr. Anil B Suraj, IIM, Bangalore, Dr. R Jagadish, L V Sreerangaraju, Advocate and M S Sudarshan, Civil Aid TechnoClinic.

The two day event concluded with eminent national and international forensic civil engineering experts under one roof, who shared and disseminated the importance of investigations and reviews that have to take place after site-accidents, as they are key sources to learning exercises, some kind of a forewarning to possible construction tragedies too.

'Built Expressions' publishes several of these papers presented during the above two-day seminar in the following section under 'Investigative Processes'. In some places, images have been added for better understanding of the article by the team without limiting the essence of the original intent by the author.