New European Standard for fabrication and erection

The European Standard for the fabrication and erection of structural steelwork, EN 1090-2, has passed its Formal Vote within Europe and will now be issued by CEN after certain editorial corrections are implemented. When issued as BS EN 1090-2 in a couple of months it will replace BS 5950-2 and BS 5400-6

Dr David Moore, BCSA Director of Engineering, said at the heart of the new fabrication standard is the concept of Execution Class which defines the level of assurance and workmanship to be applied to different structures.

In the final version of the standard the choice of Execution Class is linked to a number of criteria with different levels of traceability, welding management and weld acceptance.

Dr Moore went on to explain that for both bridges and buildings additional guidance will be issued to ensure that UK specifiers can use the standard safely. In particular an updated version of the BCSA’s National Structural Steelwork Specification will be issued for building steelwork.