THE EPIC PROJECT REPORT: AN ENGINEERING PERFORMANCE INFORMATION CENTER ON STRUCTURAL FAILURES AND DISTRESSES

This report recommends establishment of EPIC as a not-for-profit, incorporated, computerized Engineering Performance Information Center on failures and distresses in fixed, not movable, structures. No organization was found to serve as this center; no satisfactory access to primary or published records exists; yet responses to a questionnaire show definite need for EPIC's services and support for its establishment. Estimates are that 1000 failures and 3000-4000 distress conditions occur annually in the U.S. and Canada, and that EPIC could grow to 32,000 inquiries per year in its tenth year, searched against 50,000 case records. Confidentiality will be a severe problem, because the need for freedom of access to information by society and engineers must be balanced against the rights to privacy of architects, contractors and engineers who built the structures. Recommendations include objectives, organizational form, confidentiality policy, design for operational procedures, information products, personnel and facility requirements, and cost estimates for the first year. Appendices contain: questionnaire and responses; data base structure; case record form with classification of structural events; users' and staffs' inquiry forms.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Prepared in cooperation with Gull (Cloyd Dake) and Associates, Inc., Kensington, MD. See also PB80-142821.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Civil Engineers

  1801 Alexander Bell Drive
  Reston, VA  United States  20191-4400

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Gull, C D
• Publication Date: 1980-1

Media Info

• Pagination: 114 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data collection; Failure; Guidelines; Indexing; Information processing; Information services; Needs assessment; Questionnaires; Structural analysis
• Uncontrolled Terms: Data sources; User needs
• Old TRIS Terms: Information centers; Subject indexing
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00313184
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA-RD-79-119
• Contract Numbers: DOT-FH-11-8843
• Files: NTIS, USDOT
• Created Date: May 7 2002 12:00AM