Life Cycle Costing and Eurocode Adherence Shift to the Forefront in Modern Bridge Construction

LONDON, October 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Adherence to the Eurocodes and applying Life Cycle Costing (LCC) are recognised as two of the biggest considerations in bridge construction for project managers and contractors today.

The introduction of the Eurocodes was the largest single change in codified design in modern times. Engineers now operate in a whole new landscape, and must learn to operate efficiently with the new codes. LCC is becoming ever-more crucial for public project owners and private partners managing long-term maintenance of assets. Getting costs right is key to a profitable major contract, and getting it right at the procurement stage is becoming vital for project owners.

Construction IQ recently spoke with Jaap Bakker, senior specialist at the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, on the rise of LCC: "The Netherlands, like most other countries, used to do our procurement based on lowest price, and if you do that, you don't need LCC in procurement."

"Now most countries have made a development towards functional defined contracts. If you do that, you just say as long as it does what I want it to do when the contract is finished, I don't mind what it will cost to keep it performing."

In another exclusive interview, Dr Thomas Pretaschek, Project Manager at ÖBB, highlights the role of the Eurocodesin major Austrian bridge building projects says: "For engineers in Austria, the main challenge is the volume of the standards. We need simplification in the standards, but also that know-how of the standards, it must not disappear. So maybe we need more background papers, but a lower volume of standards".

Jaap Bakker and Thomas Pretaschek will be among the speakers at the Bridges Europe Summit due to take place in November in Brussels. Also present at the conference will be representatives from Atkins, Hochtief, Ramboll, Balfour Beatty, Flint & Neill and Arup to name a few.

To listen to these interviews visit http://www.bridgeseurope.com/HW

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Media contact: Viktoria Strandlund, +44(0)20-7368-9300, viktoria.strandlund@iqpc.co.uk or visit http://www.bridgeseurope.com/HW.