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

Design of a bridge
engineering work. 3 The regulative framework poses some of the limits of what is
possible in the engineering work. The architect defended his ideas about what
the bridge should look like and he did not like compromises. The architect is
well-known in the Netherlands and he has experience with designing bridges..
The architectural design specified the way the bridge should look and it dealt
with the shape and form of the bridge. The engineering design dealt with the
bridge’s construction. The engineers tried to make an engineering design that
fitted the architectural design In this phase of the design process the architect
led, with the engineers staying as close as possible to the architectural design.
The customer had asked the design team, during the preliminary design phase,
to look for options to lower the costs of the bridge without compromising the
architectural design. The architect and customer judged whether the proposals
made by the design team were within the scope of the architectural design or
would change the architectural design intolerably.
Within the IBA a number of engineers drawn from different disciplines worked
on the engineering design, two engineers worked on the steel arches and two
engineers worked on the concrete foundations and pillars. Furthermore, three
engineers were involved with the preparation of the building site and methods
that would be used during construction. One of the engineers working on
preparation of the building site was also delegated to make a health and safety
document for the bridge project.
A design leader and a project leader had been appointed. The project leader
communicated with the other stakeholders, especially the customer. One of the
engineers designing the steel parts was also the design leader. The design leader
was responsible for the exchange of information between the different engineers
and the architect. The design and project leader were jointly responsible for the
integration of the preliminary design and the preliminary design report. Every
two weeks there was a design meeting for the purpose of exchanging
information. The design leader had made a decision document for the next
design phase. Every engineer had to fill in the form when they made a decision.
The decision, the reasons for the decision and additionally the engineers from
other disciplines whose work will be influenced by the decision had to be noted
on the form. These decision forms were then sent to the design leader and the
other relevant groups.
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3 This remains normal design because “pushing to the limits” in this case means within the
normal configuration and working principle. The architect and engineers seem to refer to, for
example, thinner arches or less bulky looking road segments.
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