Any increase in European regulations is generally treated in the UK press as an assault on national sovereignty and an unnecessary imposition from Brussels to be resisted at all costs. Any new rules and regulatory codes emanating from the European Union now seem to require extraordinary levels of political finesse for them to be accepted into daily use. In the construction industry, however, the impact of European regulatory frameworks has long been a fact of life, and one with the potential to increase business opportunity and market share.

Eurocodes are a good example. Now coming on-stream, they will have a significant impact on the working habits of the engineering sector and, by extension, growers, suppliers and manufacturers seeking to promote a greater use of timber in construction. As with other European standards, Eurocodes will be used in public procurement specifications to assess products for CE (Conformité Européen) marking.

The existence of Eurocodes dates back to 1975, when the Commission of the European Communities embarked on an action programme based on Article 95 of the Treaty of Rome to eliminate technical obstacles to trade and to harmonise technical specifications. The process set out to establish a set of common technical standards for the design of buildings and civil engineering works that would ultimately replace the differing rules in the various member states.

At the beginning of 1994 the European Commission formally recommended the Eurocodes as a “suitable tool” for designing construction works and for checking the mechanical resistance of components as well as the stability of structures. By the end of 2006, 10 new Eurocodes covering 58 design standards will have been published and will begin to replace most European national codes from 2007. The Eurocodes are now mandatory for European public works and are set to become the de facto standard for the private sector, both in Europe and worldwide.

But why should something that applies specifically to the engineering sector affect those operating in the forestry and timber industries? The answer lies in the way engineers design structures and the methodologies embraced, until now, in the British Standards.

Aside from the fact that most civil and structural engineering courses focus more on the use of concrete and steel than on timber, the actual way in which structural designs are calculated has traditionally been based on the permissible stress method.

The Eurocodes that deal with the design of structures in timber take a different approach, and are based on the limit-state concept used in conjunction with the partial safety factor method. This change demands a radical alteration in approach by engineers and timber frame manufacturers since it forces a move away from what are essentially ‘side-rule’ calculation techniques to one which requires them to think in a different way and to use more supporting guidance and software. To encourage the engineering sector to make more use of timber in construction and civil engineering projects, the right training and back-up material needs to be made available.

Challenges

The time frame for this is already running, with the existing UK national codes published by the British Standards Institution certain to be withdrawn between 2008 and 2010. Between now and then, the challenge is twofold: to encourage civil and structural engineers to recognise timber as an environmentally sustainable and financially competitive structural material; and to develop the training and software that will encourage them to make more use of wood in their designs.

In part, this is the task of the Centre for Timber Engineering at Edinburgh’s Napier University. Set up almost two years ago to be a UK national facility, the scope of the Centre’s work embraces teaching and learning, research and industry-specific consultancy. Undergraduate and postgraduate courses are already up and running to provide engineers with the necessary skills to design structures in timber (an MSc course in Timber Industry Management has also been created for non-engineers within the industry) and in April this year the Centre organised a three-day Continuing Professional Development (CPD) seminar entitled “Timber and the Eurocodes”.

The event set out to provide a detailed introduction and appraisal of the three Eurocodes affecting the design of structures in timber: EN1990 (Eurocode 0) – Basis of Structural Design; EN 1991 (Eurocode 1) – Action on Structures; and EN1995 (Eurocode 5) – Design of Timber Structures. The first two are the head codes upon which all of the other Eurocodes are based, while the third is divided into three parts covering common rules for buildings, structural fire design and bridges. EN1995 poses two specific problems for structural timber designers – the change from permissible stress to limit state design and the introduction of new code material such as symbols, terminology, material properties and calculation procedures. By using worked examples and real design situations, the seminar provided its audience with a fuller understanding of how the new legislation is intended to work.

While successful, one-off events such as “Timber and the Eurocodes” are not enough in themselves to change the working habits of construction industry professionals and encourage them to look afresh at a material that they, in large part, have limited experience of using. New CPD programmes are an important means of providing up-to-date information and training. The Centre for Timber Engineering has recently been awarded £293,000 from the European Social Fund to develop Timber Engineering Online, a comprehensive suite of timber-oriented modules aimed at countering the critical shortage of expertise able to design effectively with wood. The project, when complete, will provide flexible education and training for the industry via a library of online teaching materials and technology-enabled learning tools.

Opportunities

As professionals within the industry become more familiar with the implications of the Eurocodes and more able to apply the skills and techniques required by them, so too will new opportunities emerge. Indeed, the thinking behind their creation has been to facilitate the exchange of construction services between EU member states; expand the marketing and use of structural components and kits of parts throughout Europe; to provide a common basis for research and development in the construction sector; to aid the preparation of common design aids and software; and to increase the competitiveness of European civil engineering companies, contractors, designers and product manufacturers throughout the world. In this respect the ambition to create an unrivalled and truly world class set of unified international codes of practice for designing buildings and civil engineering structures is now close to being realised.

For those working in the UK forestry, timber and construction industries, the message is clear: rather than being yet another onerous imposition from Brussels, the Eurocodes have the potential to stimulate new business opportunities at home and abroad. For design professionals there are new creative possibilities to be explored. The Eurocodes offer a vehicle for the 21st century in which knowledge is unquestionably power and those who recognise the high added value to be had from education and training and get up to speed quickest will profit most. And for once, timber is able to compete on an even playing field.