Nigerian Institute of Structural Engineers

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING PRACTICE

by Engr. K.A Adeola,
Managing Director, CPMS Ltd
SCOPE OF PRESENTATION
1. STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING PROFESSION
1.1 Scope of Structural Engineering
1.2 Career Options for the Structural Engineer
1.3 Social and Economic Impact and Recognition
2. THE STRUCTURAL ENGINEER IN PRACTICE
2.1 As a Technical Solution Provider
2.2 As an Entrepreneur
2.3 As a Socio-Economic Change Agent
3. THE NIGERIAN CHALLENGE
3.1 Engineering Skills Necessary but Insufficient
3.2 Vision, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Missing
Structural Engineering Profession
Scope of Structural Engineering
At its core, the practice of structural engineering
is centred around:
• the understanding of structural elements,
• conceptualising of structural frames,
• analysing and designing these frames to ensure safety
stability and serviceability, and
• monitoring and/or supervising the fabrication as may be
required.
Structural Engineering Profession
Scope of Structural Engineering
These disciplines manifest most commonly in
• building structures, including high or low rise buildings and
warehouses;
• transportation structures including bridges, tunnels, structural
pavements, observation towers, jetties and ports;
• hydraulic structures including dams, water tanks, drainage
channels and aqueducts;
• power plant structures including silos, pressure tanks,
transmission lines and nuclear reactors.
Structural Engineering Profession
Scope of Structural Engineering
• Structural engineering scope extends to
dynamic structures including parts and bodies
of motor vehicles, air planes and space ships,
rails and engines.
Structural Engineering Profession
Career Options in Structural Engineering
Three broad career options may be identified for
the structural engineer as follows:
• As a structural engineer in an organisation providing structural
services for itself, including government, construction, oil and
gas, power, telecoms, etc.
• As a research engineer in the academics and research
institutes
• As a design engineer in private firms providing structural
services for fees, as a business
Structural Engineering Profession
Social & Economic Impact & Recognition
There seems to be a strong mismatch between
impact & recognition of the structural engineer:
• The engineer often has reasonably high self worth, and the
society seems to have reasonable respect for his training and
intellect
• The earning power of the structural engineer, however, does
not support his ego or the impact of his services
• He feels frustrated that the enabling environment for
professional and financial fulfilment is absent
Structural Engineer in Practice
As a Technical Solution Provider
This is the first of three business strategies for
the engineer in consulting practice:
• In this option, he provides structural engineering solutions to
concepts developed by others including building structures,
bridges, dams, drainage systems, concepts of which are
developed by others
• In this role, he depends on others to produce the concepts,
and legislation to enforce the use of his services
• He needs to develop a marketing strategy to achieve
business sustainability with this option
Structural Engineer in Practice
As an Entrepreneur
This is the second of the three business
strategies for the engineer in consulting practice:
• In this option, he goes beyond providing technical solutions to
others and develops business concepts of his own centred
around structural and other engineering skills
• Examples include multi-disciplinary consultancy, construction,
project management, materials testing, etc.
• This requires vision, business strategy and drive in addition to
structural engineering skills
Structural Engineer in Practice
As a Socio-Economic Change Agent
This is the third of the three business strategies
for the engineer in consulting practice:
• In this option, he conceives of developmental programmes
that can significantly change society for the better and
strongly promotes these programmes within his sphere of
influence
• This effort will give him visibility, relevance and voice in the
larger society and allow him to positively influence events.
• This is the most challenging option of the three and it is where
structural engineers are least prepared
The Nigerian Challenge
Engineering Skills Necessary but Insufficient
The 1st peculiarity of the Nigerian environment is
that structurally demanding structures are few:
• The first implication of this is that sophisticated and high
calibre engineering skills are not required for the typical 5-
storey building available in abundance
• This leads to the proliferation of consulting firms and cost
based competition.
• Having a business strategy to survive in such an environment
is key
The Nigerian Challenge
Engineering Skills Necessary but Insufficient
The 2nd peculiarity of the Nigerian environment
is the frequent collapse of low rise structures:
• The cause of this is not only incompetent design, but the
whole processes of design, construction and regulation
• What is required to manage this problem is influencing the
regulatory system to institute effective processes for
managing construction the construction processes
• The structural engineering community has not been effective
in this process and the leadership is being taken over by
others
The Nigerian Challenge
Engineering Skills Necessary but Insufficient
The 3rd peculiarity is that structural engineers
have largely limited themselves to building
structures with no innovation:
• One of the implications of this is that there is not much to
choose between a five and a ten years’ experienced
engineer, given the lack of challenging structures
• This has led to the mushrooming of firms of just average
competences and experiences and limitation in inspiring
confidence in being able to handle complex structures
The Nigerian Challenge
Engineering Skills Necessary but Insufficient
There are a few other peculiarities but the last
one for this paper is the lack of vision, strategy
and innovation in structural engineering practice.
Unless this is corrected, structural engineering
practice will remain small and mediocre.