SNiPs or Eurocodes?-2

Our magazine has already published devoted to this subject article by Vladimir Travush, Vladlen Almazov and Yuri Volkov (“SN iPs or Eurocodes?”, “TB ” № 3, 2011), calling for not to rush with the introduction of the Eurocodes in action. In this issue we publish the standpoint of Philip Nikandrov, the Chief Architect of the projects “Ohta Center” and “Lakhta center.”

Eurocodes - is a set of European standards and norms (EN) for structural engineering and manufacturing of construction materials, agreed at EU level and recommended for use according to national circumstances in the countries - members of the Union. Since 1989, the Eurocodes has been developed by special Technical Committee for Standardization TC 250 (CEN/TC250) within the framework of the European Organization for Standardization (CEN - Comite Europeen de Normalisation), although the program started even earlier - in 1975, i.e. 36 years ago.

As European standards related to construction, Eurocodes have been issued in 10 volumes-sections, containing 58 units (a total of approximately 5,000 pages), including specifications for design, standards for building materials and products, as well as for performance of works and testing. Standard phased implementation program of Eurocodes involves the translation of documents into the national language, the harmonization of local standards with European and development of national applications in which are described and considered the geographic and climatic features of the country, as well as different levels of security, traditionally used at the regional level.

After this follow publication of the Eurocodes with the applications and the period of concurrent use of Eurocodes and national system of technical standards. Definition of security level of construction and other works on designing structures and parts thereof, including aspects of durability and economy, still remain the responsibility of the state that implements Eurocodes. In 2005, in the framework Russia - EU summit for the first time was tasked to develop a harmonized, compatible technical regulations, standards and certification systems to promote trade and create a single market of the EU and Russia.

On behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation has developed a comprehensive implementation program of Eurocodes in technical regulation system of the construction industry of the Russian Federation, according to these plans the updated SNiPs and the Russian GOSTs standards in construction will remain in force and Eurocodes with regard to national applications that will be applied on a alternative basis. Russia is actively integrating into the global economy that requires the convergence of national legislation with international legal norms and the requirements of the World Trade Organization.

The EU is Russia’s major trading partner, accounting for about half of the national foreign trade. For the EU economy Russia is the third major trading partner. The country’s entry into the European capital and production markets inevitably leads to the need to focus on European standards. Those skilled of the older generation, who have spent their entire professional lives operating in the frame the regulatory system of GOSTs and SNiPs, the transition to European norms and standards, of course, seems some kind of Russian capitulation to Western Europe.

In this regard, the Russian standards and construction codes, as part of a Soviet school legacy, for many of them are the attributes of national sovereignty. But for almost all European countries the integration process in a common economic space was accompanied by a strong culture shock associated with the abandonment of national currencies, laws, rules and standards. In almost all countries conservative politicians and parties strongly oppose the process of European integration.

This movement, generally called ‘Euroscepticism’, supported by several national economic groups whose interests in preserving an established state of things, regardless of how it favors the development of the nation and Europe as a whole. Historically, Europe was the main military theater, where wars were rather common among all the countries, as evidenced by the urban development of European cities, where from Paris to Moscow traditionally grew fortification walls encircling the fortress in the central part.

Europe is the birthplace of the bourgeois and socialist revolutions and two world wars of the XX century, and internecine conflicts and separatism, even at the regional level, is long rooted in the genetic code of the Europeans. That is why the process of European integration has always been rather painful for all, without any exceptions, national cultures and economies. Europe still has been convulsed with disintegration processes increscent in recent years, like aftereffects of its lower economic and financial crises.

However, the process of European integration is irreversible; it is dictated by the geographical and geopolitical factors, the general globalization of regional markets and the common values of European civilization (mainly Christian, despite all the differences between religions) as opposed to the rapidly gaining strength and power South-East Asia and the rich with hydrocarbons Islamic countries. A united Europe within the 27 countries forming a new center of economic capacity, in fact, a new superpower competing with the U.S., Japan and China.

The Russian Federation is not a member of the EU, but European integration process still affects the continent’s largest multi-ethnic state with a population of more than 180 people (that testify about the huge integration potential). For Russia, this the point of identity: whether we feel ourselves as a part of European civilization? Does the Russia shares generally accepted European values?

Russia stands before the strategic choice of external economic policies - whether to continue the development of enough slack “CIS project” (which, in fact, differs little from the course to self-imposed isolation from the civilized world), or once join in a single European family, having passed through the stages of phased integration, to become its part of, including harmonization of standards. After all, even such isolationist in its foreign policy the country such as Belarus, has advanced much further than Russia in the recognition of the Eurocodes, which are already operating in the country with the status of national documents (as long as is mainly for investment projects).

Full version you can download here

Text by PHILIPP NIKANDROV, Chief Project Architect of “Ohta Center” and “Lakhta Center”