KIU, Western Campus – A team from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) represented KIU at a consultative workshop on Steel-Timber-Concrete (STC) composited construction method held on Thursday, March 14th, 2024, at Silver Springs Hotel in Bugoloobi, Kampala.

The team included Assoc. Prof. Muhammad Mustapha Lawan, the Dean of SEAS, Prof. Kolowale Adisa Olonade, a senior lecturer and Eng. Caleb Mwesigwa (in the picture), a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Civil Engineering.

The workshop was organized to allow a multi-disciplinary technical committee consisting of professionals from industry, academia and professional bodies to subject their draft proposals for consideration by stakeholders in Civil Engineering.

The proposals encompass minimum guidelines on the use of structural timber, concrete, structural steel and combinations of the materials.

The team from KIU was invited because NBRB picked interest in a research they did and recently published in the KIU Journal for Science, Engineering and Technology (KJSET) titled. “Evaluating the Causes of Building Collapse in Kampala District, Uganda.”

Eng. Caleb Mwesigwa thanked NBRB for giving them a chance to review the technical committee and give guidelines. He pointed out that the onus was now on regulators to implement the requirements.

“We thank NBRB for having given us a chance to review them and give recommendations. Once the committee’s work is complete, the responsibility will increase for the regulators like UNBS, city and town council planners to develop skills and financial capacity to enforce implementation of the minimum guidelines,” Eng. Mwesigwa remarked.

During the workshop, Dr. Apollo Buregyeya, who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at ECO Concrete Ltd told the attendees that the technical committee of experts had developed minimum guidelines for use of structural timber, concrete and structural steel combinations in buildings.

Some of the minimum guidelines were that developers should procure timber from reputable suppliers certified by UNBS (Uganda National Bureau of Standards), they should engage professional engineers to design with structural steel as per the regulations and engineers should furnish welders and fitters with welding procedures specifications.

They also decided that building control committees should only consider applications for approval of development with structural steel which are accompanied by design calculations and certificate of good structural practice, signed off and stamped by registered engineers.