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

Ethical issues in engineering design
materials was not made in the preliminary design phase. In a discussion held
during the preliminary design phase where sustainability might have been
relevant, the engineer said that new legislation was anticipated. This legislation
will limit the amount of volatile substances allowed in paints and it will be in
force when the bridge is built. The discussion on paints took place when the
means for conserving and maintaining of the steel arches was discussed. A
conservation system consisting of a metallic coating, for example zinc, and paint
is required in the requirements. This form of conservation system is very
expensive and the OGA wanted a cheaper conservation system. According to the
engineers from the IBA the conservation system using a metal layer and paint
was perhaps too expensive and over engineered. They agreed with the OGA that
it might suffice to have another, cheaper system. The IBA engineers, however,
wanted to look at more than the costs of paints and their application, they also
wanted to reduce maintenance requirements. They decided to look for an
organic paint system that conserves the steel arches of the bridge as well as the
systems used to conserve similar large bridges. One of the engineers contacted
different paint producers to determine what kinds of organic paints would be
suitable for the bridge, he also mentioned in a design meeting that when the
bridge was painted in 2007 there would be new legislation covering a reduction
of volatile substances in paints. The organic paint system that he advised using
complies with the upcoming legislation.
6.4 Responsibility and liability
The IBA is NEN-EN-ISO 9001:2000 certified. This quality system requires that
every calculation and drawing is checked. Every official document must have the
signatures of the engineer that has written it and the engineer that has checked
appended. The responsibility for calculations is thus divided between two
engineers; the one that has performed the calculations and one that has checked
them. After the document has been checked the project leader has to append his
signature for release to the customer or other external instances. This system
should make all decisions traceable. The NEN-EN–ISO certificate is a quality
system that focuses mainly on procedures.
In the interviews I asked the engineers whether the checking and signing of
documents were related to liability issues. The engineers did not know if this was
the case and started asking me whether they could be held liable in cases where
they had signed some calculation or other documents. There is very little
information on engineers being held liable if people are injured or killed due to a
design flaw. There have been very few cases in which an engineer has been sued
and convicted. Most cases have been settled or the engineers were acquitted. For
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