FOCUS
Safety strategies
to be set, and it is the responsibility of the design team to therefore ensure that the design is fully coordinated, compliant with all relevant regulations and agreed with the statutory approving authorities.
Construction stage
When the project moves into the construction stage, it is the contractor’s responsibility to build what is shown on the contract drawings and specifications, and turn the design intent into something real and tangible. But the general environment in which construction work seems to be done these days includes: • programmes shrinking • costs being driven down •
standard of quality often not being explicitly defined
• less checking being done on site by building control authorities
• the role of the design team during construction diminishing
• the disappearance of the role of clerk of the works, once the custodian of quality
• lack of understanding of fire safety performance of materials and products
• lack of understanding of integrated systems design and verification
So how is the quality and standard of life safety systems installed on site being monitored and ensured? Recent experience shows that
20 OCTOBER 2018
www.frmjournal.com
consistently it isn’t, be it through materials or products being swapped during tender or construction for worse performing versions, on the grounds of savings in cost and programme (aluminium composite materials being a prime example), or materials and products being incorrectly installed or not installed in the first place (key examples being cavity barriers and fire stopping). The standards of quality and workmanship
in relation to fire safety measures installed in buildings can vary massively. For example, what is designed is often not built; what is built is often not done to the right standard; and what is said to be to the right standard is often not inspected properly to be able to verify this. At the completion of the construction
process, certification that a building is fit for habitation must consider the life safety of occupants and not just be a contractual milestone. How is it possible to certify something as being compliant with the Building Regulations and providing the level of life safety required if the proper checks on products, installation and workmanship are not done?
Handover stage
And finally to building handover. Over the last few years, the focus for many fire engineers on projects has shifted from the design stage to the construction stage, and more recently
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