Reliability Assurance in Navys Welded Steel Shore Structures

Aside from ships, the Navy construction program covers a wide variety of welded steel structures built on shore, as well as certain types of floating craft in harbor installations. The construction of these structures is under the jurisdiction of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command. In the past, this command, then known as Navy's Bureau of Yards and Docks,had its own codes and standards for workmanship and acceptance. Although these standards contained only minor deviations from the corresponding specifications of the private industry, in recent years a new policy has evolved which, in effect, has resulted in full conformance with current regulations of commercial practice. Government construction agencies are often criticized by the building industry for their unnecessarily restrictive specifications, which they rightly contend to have contributed to mounting costs of fabrication. Rarely a project is completed without involvement in interpretive litigation. Perhaps influenced by this situation, the industry itself is now adopting many of these restrictive clauses. This is particularly true for regulations governing welded construction, and more specifically, the quality and acceptability of welds, which are covered mainly by the American Welding Society's Code for Welding in Building Construction.