Page 111 - Forensic Structural Engineering Handbook

2.16 DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION PRACTICES

drafted for committee ballot by 1984. Final adoption of code, specifications, and commen-
taries by ASCE and ACI occurred in October 1988.
The ACI 530 Building Code Requirements for Masonry Structures is primarily directed to
the designer and code enforcement officials, while ACI 530.1 Specifications for Masonry
Structures is primarily directed to the contractor and inspector. 40, 41 Significant aspects related
to these documents are that brick, block, and combination of brick and block are covered in a
single document, and design is based on the premise that all work will be inspected.

AASHTO Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges. Compilation of the AASHTO
Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges began in 1921 with the organization of the
Committee on Bridges and Structures of the American Association of State Highway
Officials. The first edition of the standard specifications was published in 1931, and it
quickly became the de facto national standard. It has been reissued in consecutive editions
at approximate four-year intervals ever since as Standard Specifications for Highway
Bridges, with the seventeenth edition appearing in 2002. 42
The AASHTO Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges serves as a standard or
guide for the preparation of state specifications and for reference by bridge engineers. The
specifications prescribe minimum requirements that are consistent with current practice as
well as certain modifications necessary to suit local conditions. They apply to ordinary
highway bridges, and supplemental specifications may be required for unusual types and
for bridges with spans longer than 500 feet. Specifications of the American Society for
Testing and Materials, the American Welding Society, the American Wood Preservers
Association, and the National Forest Products Association are referenced. Interim specifi-
cations are usually published in the middle of the calendar year.
In 1986, the Subcommittee on Bridges and Structures submitted a request to the
AASHTO Standing Committee on Research to undertake an assessment of U.S. bridge
design specifications, review foreign design specifications and codes, consider design
philosophies alternative to those underlying the Standard Specifications, and to develop rec-
ommendations based on these investigations. The principal recommendation of the sub-
committee was the development of an entirely new LRFD bridge design standard. Bridge
engineers now have a choice of two design standards: the long-standing AASHTO Standard
Specifications for Highway Bridges and the alternative AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design
Specifications and companion AASHTO LRFD Bridge Construction Specifications. 43, 44

Codes and Standards for the Design of Temporary Structures
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA) have developed guide standards with respect to design loads during construction
and the design of temporary works used in construction. The ASCE effort corresponds to
the development of an ANSI/ASCE Standard for Design Loads in Structures during
45
Construction. The FHWA document is a guide design specification for use by state agen-
cies to update their existing standard specifications for falsework, formwork, and related
temporary construction. 46
ASCE Standard for Design Loads on Structures during Construction. In 2002, ASCE
published the SEI/ASCE 37-02 Standard for Design Loads on Structures during
47
Construction. ( SEI/ASCE 37-02 is undergoing revisions at the time of this writing for
its republication as SEI/ASCE 37-09.) The objective of the standard is to establish per-
formance criteria, design loads, load combinations, and safety factors to be used in the
analysis and design of structures during their transient stages of construction as well as tem-
porary structures used in construction operations. The standard is composed of six sections
corresponding to a general introduction identifying the purpose and scope of the document,