The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.
by Grenville Phillips II
I have been asked why I am offering medical advice in my last article. Please note that I am not offering medical advice. You should get your medical advice from medical doctors. So, what am I doing?
As a structural engineer, I am responsible for the quality of all structural materials used in every construction project I supervise.
I do not accept a contractor’s confident assertions that the materials he brought to a construction site are up to standard – I investigate his claims by rigorous checking and testing.
If quarried stone is used, then I check which quarry it came from. Then I get samples from that quarry and have them independently tested, to confirm that they meet the strength and durability properties that I specified in the construction contract.
I also examine the laboratory that tests the stones, and request a recent calibration certificate for the testing equipment. I then verify that the calibration certificate is authentic with the entity that issued it.
If concrete blocks arrive on the site, I select a few randomly for independent testing.
If steel reinforcement arrives at the site, and there is no certificate from the manufacturer, then I get some samples cut and sent to a lab for independent testing. That is only the beginning of the quality control and assurance checks I do for my clients.
Does doing these things make me anti-construction? Of course not. So, why do I do them? Because when the contractor submits an invoice for payment, and I approve it, I then become liable for what the contractor has built.
Therefore, I protect myself by protecting my clients.
I do not normally concern myself with medicines that the Government imports, because I do not take them – I have not been sick in over a decade.
However, if the Government is considering mandating that I and all Barbadians must take an injection, then I have a direct interest in its quality.
Should I not give the injection, at least the same level of rigorous scrutiny that I would give to construction materials going into my client’s properties?
So, no. I am not an ‘anti-vaxxer’ – I am a Structural Engineer.
Grenville Phillips II is a Chartered Structural Engineer. He can be reached at NextParty246@gmail.com