‘Structural Engineering'

TEMPORARY WORKS DESIGN

Temporary works form the part of construction that is required to provide structural support to any
aspect of contracting used to erect permanent works. A more recognised definition, according to BS
5975-2008 is: ‘Temporary works is an “engineered solution” used to support or protect either an
existing structure or the permanent works during construction, or to support an item of plant or
equipment, or the vertical sides or side-slopes of an excavation during construction operations on
site or to provide access’. ‘Temporary’ gives the impression that the works are removed once the
structure is up. This is true to a degree; however it is fairly regular that certain temporary works may
be incorporated into the permanent works to save on time and cost e.g. when granular working
platforms (used for support of tracked plant on weak soils) is built into the permanent ground build.
Temporary works covers a wide range of plant that cannot truly be categorised; nonetheless the
general consensus is that there are 3 main categories: Earthworks, Structures and Equipment + Plant
Foundations.

Earthworks include trenches, excavations, temporary slopes and stockpiles. These are groundworks
and require the expertise of those in the know of soil and geotechnical engineering. Much of these
designs depend on soil type and strength, whilst calculations are derived from famous soil
mechanics theorems developed by the likes of Terzaghi.

The structures category involves all temporary works that partake in the development of the
building above ground level. Some of them are formwork, falsework, scaffolding and propping.

Example of scaffolding (Josh Sorenson ‘pexels’, 2016)

Design of Temporary Works; a good start to understanding the design is to know the difference
between permanent and temporary works design.

 Temporary works are stressed to high levels whilst permanent works are not (within service
limits).
 In terms of limit states, permanent works are designed to ultimate limit state whilst
temporary works are designed mainly to serviceability limit state depending on deflection.
 Design codes for permanent works are limit state whilst temporary works are according to
limit state as well as permissible stress values.
 For permanent works the ratio between live load to dead load is generally 50/50 whilst for
temporary works its 1/10.

The very basic design concept between temporary and permanent works is the same, a standard
design procedure is adopted to check against failure mechanisms such as; shear, bending moment,
lateral torsional buckling etc. the appropriate safety factors are provided and the design resistance is
either calculated or provided by a product supplier.

Who carries out the design? The temporary works design starts off on paper and ends up on site, the
actual design must be carried out by a competent, experienced and qualified Temporary Works
Designer (TWD). The design must also be carried out according to recognised methods and
standards. The TWD may design the temporary works himself or have the responsibility of checking
works from another firm to confirm whether it is suitable for site. Temporary works have categories;
High Risk, Medium Risk and Low Risk. Depending on the category the TWD must work double
checked by another designer and even an outside/external design checker.

When it gets to the site, a Temporary Works Co-ordinator (TWC) will be in charge of ensuring that
the design is correctly implemented according to a safe, efficient method. The TWC must work to
adequate design brief, use a temporary works register and have a check certificate issued from the
TWD. If the site is large or complicated then the TWC may need the assistance of a Temporary Works
Supervisor (TWS) to supervise parts of the temporary works placement. If the works are minor then
the TWD can be the TWC.

My experience and views, I had the opportunity to work in a Temporary Works Department in a
contracting firm for 5 months as part of my student industrial placement. The basic setup of the
department is similar to what has just been explained. An overall design manager oversees 3 design
engineers all of whom are qualified Civil Engineers and 2 design (AutoCAD) technicians who produce
a drawing of the final design. A final design is presented on a formal detailed drawing that names the
designer, checker and drawer. Eurocodes and British Standard are often used to help determine
design loading and design resistance. Bearing capacities/resistances are also supplied by
manufacturers as mentioned earlier. Personally, I most frequently designed site hoarding and
ground reinforcement for cranes. I also had the opportunity to design for larger more critical
projects where I designed lifting arrangements for large girders, sizeable catenary wires for holding
up underground cables and more.
Design example. Below is a summarised overview of a design I did for the lifting arrangements of a
precast retaining wall. The basic goal was to decide what size and capacity to use and the
reinforcement to go with it. The lift procedure was to horizontally lift the unit out of the mould,
rotate it through 90° from the top end and then lifting it into place vertically from the same end.

Step 1: Calculate the weight of the concrete inside the mould (unit weight x volume) and factor in
adhesion forces from the mould.

Step 2: Decide the horizontal lifting mechanism; which was a four way lift with a spreader beam.
Calculate the resultant weight according to the lift angle (60°) and divide this by four to get the
weight on a single anchor.

Step 3: Using moments, find the centre of gravity (COG) of the face that the anchors will go into.
Spread the anchors equally around this point.

Step 4: Now using the product brochure; decide which anchor would be best suited for this lift.

Step 5: For the 90° rotation and vertical lift, remove the adhesion factor from the concrete weight.

Step 6: The vertical lift was not angled so the total weight is simply divided by two for two anchors
and a third anchor on the wall footing for extra leverage.

Step 7: Calculate the COG for the top face, foot and spread the anchors equally from this point.

Step 8: Choose the appropriate anchors from the brochure.

Step 9: The rotation of the slab puts the area around the anchor at risk of shearing off when the
rotation begins. Calculate the shearing force and resistance according to BS EN 1992-1-1 for
concrete. Ensure the resistance is greater than the shear force.

Step 10: Place in the appropriate reinforcement bars according to the product brochure formulae
which give different bar thickness and length depending on the anchorage.

Once I had carried out the above design, it was sent to a senior designer who proof-checked it. The
design was then drawn up on AutoCAD (see below) and then sent to the site. The site TWC would
check whether it is a practicable design, if not it is sent back. This process continues until the design
is suited to the work and a Check Certificate is issued.
Retaining wall design (Saif Suleman, 2015)

To close; Temporary Works Design is a broad and complex topic which is difficult to summarise. I’ve
tried my best to give a breakdown of it from my research and personal experience; I hope it has
been a worthwhile read.

REFERENCES

Pexels: Brown Concrete Building [ONLINE] Accessed: 19 th November 2016. Available at:
https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-concrete-building-154141/

#structuralengineering #engineeringdesign #temporaryworks #studentengineer