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

Design of a bridge
site or vice versa. So although the engineers worked in one field they needed to
be informed about what the other engineers had decided and designed.
Because of the division of labour different engineers dealt with different
ethical issues. For example, the engineers working on the concrete parts had to
deal with issues like which type of codes to choose for some of the concrete
parts. Although every engineer was expected to take working conditions into
account and make a list of risks, the primary responsibility for health and safety
during construction was placed on the engineer making the health and safety
plan. The engineers working on the steel arches will be confronted with issues of
misuse and have to decide on what misuse to prevent in later phases of the
design process. Ethical issues were primarily dealt with by one or two engineers
working on a subject. If ethical issues were problematic or any choices the
engineers made were expected to influence other parts of the bridge then choices
were discussed with the other design team members.
The choice between using European codes and NEN codes had to be taken by
the customer supported by argumentation provided by the design team. The
Rijkswaterstaat Civil Engineering Division was asked to check the construction
design of the bridge. The IBA was not required to have the Rijkswaterstaat check
the construction design, however, the engineers wanted this because the
Rijkswaterstaat has a lot of experience with designing large bridges.
When deciding about ethical (and other) issues reference was made to
elements of what I have called regulative frameworks. The regulative
frameworks provided operationalisations, calculation rules, minimal
requirements etc that were used by the engineers in the design process.
6.5.3 Regulative frameworks
Detailed and extensive regulative frameworks were used in the design process,
these consisted of legislation, codes and ideas as to how these codes should be
interpreted. The relevant legislation is, at some points, very detailed, while at
other points it refers to codes. The legislation defines a minimum required level
of safety and sustainability. When building large infrastructural objects there are
at least three regulative frameworks that can be distinguished. One is the
regulative framework pertaining to safety of workers on building and
maintenance sites. Another regulative framework is the one pertaining to the
safety of the bridge as a construction. 9 The third regulative framework is the one
pertaining to road design. It might even be possible to distinguish another
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9 There are of course overlaps between the two frameworks especially with regards to safety
during maintenance. The building decree also sets out requirements for accessibility for
maintenance.
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