o_19jdnovcg1eh21852116govv1lgra.pdf

EVENT TECHNOLOGY II
Regulations in Event-Technology
The following article is co-written by the companies “Büro für Tragwerksplanung und Ingenieurbau
vom Felde + Keppler” and “Krasenbrink + Bastians Ingenieure” from Aachen,
both companies have been working in the field of temporary structures for many years.
This article is supposed to provide an overview of the legislation and approval procedures
for temporary structures in Germany.
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Legal basics
When do I need which verifications and approvals for which
construction? What is a structural report, a verifiable calculation,
a structural analysis or a proof of stability?
For constructions in event technology there are basically two
legal bases in Germany:
1. D1. The building law that is governed by the Landesbau
ordnungen (building regulations of the federal states)
2. Accident prevention regulations (e.g. BGV C1)
Relating to our subject structural analysis in event technology
all regulations have the same prime objective:
Quotation from the Musterbauordnung (Model Building
Code): Ҥ3(1) Constructions have to be located, built, modified
and maintained in a way that public safety and order,
in particular life, health and natural recourses will not be endangered.”
The formulation of the accident prevention regulation BGV C1
is a bit different but basically the same.
Furthermore both regulations demand analogously that the
safety has to be ensured by objective criteria for example
acknowledged technical rules. In this regard it is often referred
to “generally accepted standards of technology” which
have to be observed. This demand implies not only that a
construction just does not collapse but that a certain safety
level is verifiable kept.
The personal conviction “that will work” or “we always did it
that way” or “others also build it like that” is insufficient.
Single simple products for example attachment gears can be
verified by a certificate of the manufacturer or by tests. For
more complex constructions a structural analysis is necessary.
In this regard it doesn’t matter if it is referred to a structural
report, a verifiable calculation, a structural analysis or a proof
of stability. All terms correspond to the same thing. Usually
these calculations are compiled by stress analysts/structural
engineers.
Depending on the construction and the application a verified
calculation is required. This means the structural report is
checked additionally by an independent and publicly acknowledged
surveyor (e.g. TÜV or Prüfingenieur, explanation
see below).
Generally accepted standards of technology
Generally accepted standards of technology are standards
that are fully developed in practical use and acknowledged
body of thought of the people working in that field (definition
from the encyclopedia juraforum.de).
Information on generally accepted standards of technology
can be found in the Liste der bauaufsichtlich eingeführten
Technischen Baubestimmungen (list of acknowledged technical
construction regulations), in standards, in accident prevention
regulations and in various guidelines.
Aggravating and hard to understand for laymen is the fact
that the regulations named above are not necessarily always
generally accepted standards of technology. Technical innovations
that have proven to work are often not contained in
older standards.
On the other hand new standards for the building sector are
not necessarily valid for constructions in event technology.
Current discussions concerning wind force limits for temporary
structures, friction coefficients for materials that are not
listed in the DIN EN 13814, or questions of interpretation concerning
safety of machinery installations, show how the generally
accepted standards of technology are constantly
changing respectively adjusting to the state of the art.
As a consequence it is not always clear which regulations
have to be applied, especially in young and innovative sectors
as event technology, because there may be situations that
have not been considered in regulations so far, respectively
constructions have to be rated for which no experience data
is available.
The views on the safety level that has to be kept can be differing,
especially if constructions cannot be clearly related to
building law or machinery directive.