Role and Responsibilities of Structural Auditor
Friday, 9th August, 2019

9 Aug 2019 : ISSE HQ arranged R L Nene memorial lecture at VJTI. The subject was “ Role and Responsibilities of Structural Auditor”. President Shantilal Jain in his welcome address talked about work done by ISSE founder Late R L Nene and importance of the subject. Chief Guest Mohan Dagaonkar expressed the view that all civil engineers are doing their work as per their ability. There are good and bad engineers. We need to create proper frame work defining roles and responsibilities of all professionals involved in civil projects. Chandrashekhar Kandekar made the complex subject interesting comparing cricket match analogy with structural audit and provided suggested work order format from client. AS per MCGM guidelines for their internal projects, structural engineer involved in carrying out structural inspection should decide on number of tests and type of tests to be carried out. Hemant Vadalkar spoke about ISSE format provided to MCGM. Main points to be implemented as per ISSE guideline are – the word “ Structural Audit” should be replaced by “ Structural inspection report”, Structural engineer to decide on the type of Non Destructive Tests to be carried out and MCGM should not insist on “Stability certificate” by a person who is just inspecting a structure. Like birth certificate, Stability certificate can be issued only once by the original structural designer. Validity of report for six months should be mentioned. Areas not inspected or not accessible are to be mentioned in the report. Certificate should be issued based on the honest assessment of actual condition of structure supported by photographs and deterioration marking plans. Fitness certificate can be provided after satisfactory repairs were carried out by the owner under the guidance of structural engineer.

Supervision certificate should be provided by the person supervising the construction process. As per NBC2016 format, Structural Design sufficiency certificate is only to be issued by the structural engineer stating that the design is conforms to latest codes. He also emphasised that disclaimers should be provided like in case of overloading or damage to any structural member or if the structure is not maintained properly by the owner the certificate will not be valid.

Mr. Manu from TATA Structura made the presentation on new products and tubes developed by TATA Steel which are being used for all the new airport terminals and other infrastructure projects. The program was sponsored by TATA Structura. There was an overwhelming response and more than 160 engineers attended the function.

R L Nene memorial lecture