Ethical issues in engineering design - 3TU.Centre for Ethics and ...

Design of a bridge
Other stakeholders:
The Rijkswaterstaat: The Rijkswaterstaat is a government organisation
responsible for the Dutch waterways, dikes, dams and canals. The
Rijkswaterstaat imposes rules for minimising the radar disturbance caused by a
bridge. Once a bridge is built there should still be enough vision and radar vision
downstream. The Rijkswaterstaat also imposes limits on the amount of
disturbance to shipping during the construction of a bridge. One side of the
bridge in the case will stand on a important dam controlled by the
Rijkswaterstaat. Another part of the Rijkswaterstaat, the Civil Engineering
Division (Rijkswaterstaat Bouwdienst), checks the calculations for the bridge.
The IBA has hired the Rijkswaterstaat Civil Engineering Division as advisor.
The Reliant Energy: This company has a power station near the bridge site. Road
embankments are necessary between the bridge and the connecting roads
because of the height of the bridge. One of the road embankments will be on
Reliant Energy’s land, so permission is required to build on this land. The
Reliant Energy also has a dock that the contractor might want to use to transport
materials to the building site, thus the construction company needs to obtain
permission from the Reliant Energy to use the dock.
The TENET: There are high voltage transmission lines above part of the bridge
and part of the terrain needed to build the bridge. Building underneath high
voltage lines imposes specific hazards on people working on such a site. It will
also make building the bridge upstream and shipping it to the site difficult. It
will not be possible to load the already constructed bridge onto a ship and
transport it into position because it is not possible for a ship with the bridge on it
to pass under the power lines. The TENET might be willing to cut the power
through the lines if the power demand is low during certain hours of the day or
for some months. Whether or not this is possible has to be discussed with the
TENET.
The Municipality Diemen: Part of the bridge will be on land owned by the
municipality Diemen, so their permission to build is needed.
The Architect: The customer has hired an architect for the architectural design of
the bridge. The architect had already performed a study for the DRO concerning
bridges in IJburg.
The Groengebied: On one side of the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal, (the Diemer side)
there is a nature reserve. The Groengebied manages this area. The Groengebied
has to give permission before the building can start. The Groengebied will
amongst other things, need to check whether animals can still get from one side
of the earth embankment to the other.
The Provincie North Holland: The Netherlands are divided in 12 provinces. A
province has its own council and is responsible for spatial planning, for part of
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