Vol. 477 No. 2
325 Mr. Molloy asked the Minister for Defence if he will give specific details of traceability procedures put in place by his Department to ensure that all reinforced steel used in defence force installations complies with British Standard 4449 further to his reply to Parliamentary Question No. 20 of 13 March 1997; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8998/97]
The corps of engineers include provision in contract documents that all materials, including reinforced steel are specified to the highest standards, e.g., rolled mild steel bars, cold twisted bars and high tensile fabric reinforcement shall comply with the requirements of British Standard 4449, 4461 and 4483 respectively, or equivalent. Provision is made in contract documentation to enable the resident site engineer to test for this quality of materials on delivery to site. Any materials not complying with current relevant standards or failing to comply with the tests, are immediately rejected and removed from site at the contractor's expense. In the course of assessing any sub-standard materials the origin is traced back through the contractor.
