Page 320 - Forensic Structural Engineering Handbook

TEMPORARY STRUCTURES IN CONSTRUCTION 10.9

Licensed Site Professionals and Controlled Inspection. In recent years, some state and
local governments have initiated requirements for licensed site professionals and/or con-
trolled inspection. These regulations have imposed the requirement that a licensed profes-
sional certify compliance with statutory and regulatory enactments for all or specified
portions of the construction. Such requirements gained favor in the aftermath of cata-
strophic construction failures such as the one that occurred in 1987 at L’Ambiance Plaza in
Connecticut.
Familiarity with the ins-and-outs of inspection can be of great benefit to the forensic
engineer in the attempt to sort out the origins and timing of many construction errors.
Monitoring and Maintenance. Most temporary structures need periodic or continuous
monitoring and maintenance during the construction work. Connections, members, or
entire sections may loosen, deform, move, or fail since they are not fixed “permanently.”
Well-designed and properly built temporary structures are known to have failed because
they were not monitored and maintained.

Disassembling and Removal. Disassembly and removal of temporary works may be critical
phases of the work, especially if they have functioned as temporary supports. The time,
sequence, and method must be clearly specified and controlled, so as to avoid overstress
and excessive deflections in the permanent work.
It is important to understand how the temporary structure works so as not to impair its
own stability and cause its collapse during the disassembly, or to cause damage to the
permanent facility by the sudden removal of the temporary structure.
Both the designer of the temporary structure and the contractor need to look ahead
in the planning of the project and consider this terminal, and often critical, phase of the
temporary work.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND LIABILITIES

The contractual responsibilities and legal liabilities for temporary structures may be more
complex than those for the permanent facility that is being constructed. Temporary struc-
tures present as many contractual and legal pitfalls as technical challenges. The contractual
and legal positions can become especially complex when problems or disputes occur.
Who does the design? Who prepares the drawings? How detailed and tight should the spec-
ifications be? Who is responsible and liable for what? What are the various legal positions of
the owner, designer, general contractor, subcontractor, and construction manager? There are
no universal industry standards covering these matters in relation to temporary structures. The
answers often depend on the particular temporary structure, the contract(s) among the involved
parties, local laws and regulations, and sometimes the specific circumstances.
Apart from negligence or strict liability standards, the rights and duties of parties
involved in temporary construction work are most often detailed in the contract documents,
i.e., in the general, supplementary, and special conditions. These often start with one of sev-
eral standard forms, such as those provided by the American Institute of Architects (AIA),
the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee (EJCDC), or the Associated General
Contractors of America (AGC), and then include modifications tailored to meet the specific
needs of a particular project.
The responsibilities and liabilities of the various participants on a construction project, as
related to temporary structures, are outlined in the following paragraphs. The forensic inves-
tigator must be knowledgeable about these, in addition to technical matters, if he or she is
called upon to opine as to the assignment of the responsibilities for a construction failure.