The Civil Engineering Contractor November 2018 | Page 6

POLICYMAKERS
Update on concrete standards and codes
Speaking at The Concrete Conference in August, The
Concrete Institute managing director Bryan Perrie gave
an update on the process of developing new concrete and
aggregates standards and codes.
It included an introduction to the way South Africa’s
standards have historically developed, and how they are
changing in terms of structural design codes, structural
specifications, material specifications, and test methods.
The way it was …
Previously there were SANS 10160, which was the basis
for structural design, as well as SANS 10100-1 and
-2 for structural use of concrete: design and materials
“We need to have standards and
specifi cations to help control work that
happens primarily on construction sites;
to protect a client and contractors so that
everybody knows what is expected and
how it is going to be measured; and fi nally,
to assess whether the client got from the
contractor what he wanted.”
The changes that are coming have some implications for the
industry, he explains.
He noted that the standards division of SANS is “very
short staffed and we’re battling to get a lot of these
documents through”. He also emphasised that SANS itself
does not write standards — “They are written by the
industry and I need to acknowledge the members of the
working groups who have done a lot of work in writing
these standards,” says Perrie.
“The backdrop to this discussion is that we need to have
standards and specifications to help control work that
happens primarily on construction sites; to protect a client
and contractors so that everybody knows what’s expected
and how it’s going to be measured; and finally, to assess
whether the client has got what he paid for,” says Perrie.
South Africa, which has traditionally followed UK standards, is in the process of adopting EU standards.
4 | CEC November 2018
www.civilsonline.co.za