Sign-Up Here

Six Year Code Cycle

Dear Fellow Engineers,

In an attempt to raise a real concern and common voice of all practicing structural engineers in the state of Arizona and all of the United States and in the world, SEAoA (Structural Engineers Association of Arizona) wants to highlight some issues pertaining to the IBC (International Building Code) cycle, which currently is set at 3 years by ICC (International Code Council).

As you are aware, IBC is a general building code which references material codes such as for steel (AISC), concrete (ACI), Wood (NDS), Masonry (TMS) and for loads (ASCE 7) and other such sub- codes. Following is the revision cycle for these sub- codes:

Loads  (ASCE 7)           –  6 years
Steel  (AISC 360)         –  6 years
Masonry (ACI/ASCE)  –  Just Changed to 6 years
Wood  (NDS)               –  4 to 7 years
Concrete (ACI)             –  3 years
IBC  – 3 years                     

Among others, some obligations for practicing structural engineers are to cost of doing business, learn the IBC and associated sub-codes and to update the engineering knowledge/library. We have noted that most of these updates are minor and can be issued by addenda.

The burden of updating to a newer IBC code every three years is not only the expense of the codes themselves but the retraining time; which can be considerable.  In addition, the burden to the building departments in retraining can run into hundreds of lost man hours. This results in not only additional fees for the consumer but time delays in processing plan permits.

In SEAoA’s opinion keeping in mind the common interest all the fellow practicing structural engineers in the State of Arizona and in an attempt to make this field of work more practical and creative, we urge your jurisdiction to set a guideline to adopt the IBC every other code cycle (every 6 years) and not every code cycle. (New code adoption schedule can be maintained along with ASCE 7 and AISC 360, which gets adopted into IBC every other code cycle; meaning 6 years.). Code changes that are critical to life safety can be released on an annual or biannual basis if necessary.

We believe that adopting codes every 6 years will benefit the engineering community and the jurisdictions.

The next code adoption can be IBC 2018, but then it should be IBC 2024. We also urge all the jurisdictions to align their new IBC code adoption cycle with other jurisdictions, to have the same IBC code adoption.

Please take a moment to fill out the form above to show your support for this initiative.

Thank you very much for your time and participating in this effort.