US-14: Structural engineer faces ethical challenge
Engineer's professional obligations in delegated designs.
US-15: Failure of existing long-span wood roof truss following installation of new roof-top HVAC units
Failure of an existing long-span wood roof truss following installation of new roof-top HVAC units offers lessons in the special challenges of renovations to existing buildings.
An ASCE task committee is studying the NTSB report on the FIU bridge collapse. We hope to share a summary of their work soon.
September 2020: CROSS-US Newsletter 2
CROSS-US would welcome your reports on new structural safety hazards arising from these or other consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic; your reports will help us learn for the future.
Safety hazards might be in the present during lockdown, be in the future as we hopefully get back to normal afterwards or become embedded in the built fabric and give problems in years to come. What are you finding that we should learn from as a result of:
CROSS-US is a confidential reporting system established to capture and share lessons learned from structural safety issues which might not otherwise get public recognition. Our Panel provides expert commentary to help engineers learn from the experiences of others. CROSS-US will help the profession and improve public safety.
CROSS-US builds on the success of CROSS-UK, the UK based system that has been operating since 2005 with demonstrable public safety outcomes. It depends on individuals and firms participating by sending reports of their experiences and concerns on structural safety in confidence.
Reports submitted to CROSS-US are completely confidential and neither personal details nor information that could be used to identify a project or product are seen by anyone other than the Designated Persons as detailed on our People page.
Welcome to CROSS-US
As professional engineers we have a profound duty to ensure the safety of all those who use the structures we design and build. Sharing feedback on near misses or concerns is not always easy, and CROSS is a successful community platform to allow professionals to do this simply, without attributing blame.
Learning across national boundaries is vital as frequently the experiences in one country are directly relevant to another. The CROSS model has operated successfully in the UK for many years, and we are working to expand it as an international safety reporting scheme wherever we can.
I would like to thank all my fellow SEI members who rose to the challenge of formally establishing CROSS-US. By doing so you have made an invaluable contribution to safety in the built environment.
With my best wishes,
Glenn Bell, Director, CROSS-US
Visit our Confidential Reporting page to find out more about our system or if you have an experience that could be useful to others, please contribute by submitting a report.
Recent publications from CROSS International partners include:
August 2020 CROSS-AUS Newsletter 4
July 2020 CROSS-UK Newsletter 59
February 2020 CROSS-AUS Newsletter 3
January 2020 CROSS-UK Newsletter 57