Structural Engineer jobs

Grand Canal Dock Theatre.

Interesting news this week as it was announced that the Grand Canal Theatre in the Dublin Docklands will open on Paddy's day next year. This development was designed by ARUP and will be a landmark in the docklands redevelopment along with the large Conference Centre on the other side of the river with its cantilevering sloping glass cylinder.

Construction of the theatre

The new Convention Centre; Dublin Docklands

The new convention centre due to its complicated front facade required an innovative construction method which included propping the steel members of the sloping cylinder, you can see how the method of construction here. The Docklands area of Dublin has had extensive development since 2000. Such as various large apartment developments, previously unseen in Ireland in this scale. Such development of this scale will probably not be seen for at least a decade to come with the economic climate is it is.

Another interesting development in the docklands was the installation of Calatrava's Samuel Beckett Cable-stay Bridge which will connect the north and south inner ring roads. It was floated to Ireland all the way from Netherlands where it was constructed. There was some difficulty in sailing it up the Liffey due to high winds but it is now in position and finishing touches are being put in place including the rotation mechanism to allow shipping traffic along the river. Calatrava is both an architect and structural engineer who was born near Valencia in Spain. He has designed a number of other bridges and very interesting structures.

Calatrava has been widely heralded as having the ability to bridge the division between architecture and structural engineering. He has continued the Spanish modernist movement and brought it into the 21st century, previously developed by Felix Candela and Gaudi. One of his most famous bridges is Puente del Alamillo in Seville has been a bone of contention for a number of structural engineers. It has been argued that this bridge is structurally inefficient. This may be a valid argument as the sloping cable-stay tower creates significant bending moment in the bridge deck. If the cable-stay tower was vertical the forces involved would be more easily resolved. The angled pylon does offer a counterbalance to the concrete bridge deck. However one cannot deny the impressive vista that the forcefully asymmetric layout of this bridge portrays.

Another of Calatrava's famous designs is the Chicago Spire in Chicago, Illinois.

Construction on this skyscraper began in 2007 but was stalled in 2008 due to the economic uncertainty. Calatrava imagined this structure as an imaginary smoke spiral and also the 'graceful' forms in a snail shell. From the top a viewer would be able to see four states. The curvature of the structure should add to the strength of the structure while minimising wind forces to which the structure will be subjected to. The structural engineer appointed to this construction was Thornton Thomasetti who had experience on the Taipei 101 and Petronas Towers.

The developer for the skyscraper was in fact Irish - Shelbourne Developments who were financed by Anglo Irish Bank. Of course this is partially why the construction is delayed as Anglo Irish bank are in severe difficulty at the moment and may well continue to be even with the passing of the NAMA bill in Ireland this week.

Of course Anglo Irish Bank announced this week that they are seeking 320 redundancies so it does not look like the construction of the spire will restart any time soon. Of course perhaps with the initiation of NAMA and also Shelbourne Development's application to the American Federation of labor a& Congress of Industrial Organisation (AFL-CIO). The AFL-CIO is interested in funding the construction of the tower as it would create thousands of construction jobs for up to 5 years injecting substantial money into the Illlinois economy.