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BS 8110-1:1997 Sect. 2.2.2.2 requires that "structures should be planned and designed so that they are not unreasonably susceptible to the effects of accidents. In particular, situations should be avoided where damage to small areas of a structure or failure of single elements may lead to collapse of major parts of the structure." Contractor cofirmed that they have designed the buildings for robustness by stating thAT: "In order to reduce the sensitivity of the building to disproportionate collapse in the event of an accident, the vertical load-bearing walls are designed such that any element can be removed without causing the collapse of more than a limited portion close to the element in question. Since it is inappropriate to provide effective vertical ties in a precast concrete construction like this, each load-bearing wall element is considered to be removed in turn and elements normally supported by the element in question designed to bridge the gap. Therefore the wall elements are connected with each other by keyed reinforced vertical joints, as they are designed in chapter 7.2.2. Thus, in case of an accident the "bridging" element transfers its loads across the reinforced keyed joints into the adjacent elements. In this chapter, the wall elements are designed as BRIDGING ELEMENTS." RONALDO B. NILO Sr. Structural Engineer Member, ICC, PICE, SAF Maunsell / AECOM - Doha Barwa City Housing Project ht www.maunsell.com "The protection of life, health and property is a solemn responsibility of the highest order"