Background to the Code

BS EN 1992, Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures

Ultimately Eurocode 2 (EC2 or officially, BS EN 1992) will be the one design code for all concrete structures in the UK and Europe. EN 1992-1-1 was published in December 2004 and the National Annex was published in December 2005, making it possible to use in the UK.

Essentially, it brings reinforced concrete design up to date. It benefits from over 40 years of knowledge and experience since the forerunners of the UK ultimate limit state codes, BS 8110, BS8007 etc were first put together. At first sight, Eurocode 2 may appear hard to comprehend and more complex than UK codes but it is undoubtedly more comprehensive.

Eurocode 2 has four parts, follow the links to find out more about each part:
	BS EN 1992-1-1 Common rules for buildings and civil engineering structures BS EN 1992-1-2 Structural fire design BS EN 1992-2 Bridges BS EN 1992-3 Liquid retaining structures

Each part has a National Annex (NA) which gives national values for certain partial factors (or Nationally Determined Parameters, NDP's). Besides safety, the NA might also include matters of national custom and practice. These NA's are backed by PD6687 which gives the background to UK choices. PD6687 covers BS EN 1992-1-1 and BS EN 1992-1-2. During 2008 it is anticipated that PD6687 will be extended to cover BS EN 1992-3 and PD6697-2 covering the NDP's to BS EN 1992-2.

Following a period of co-existence with the current UK codes, the UK codes will be withdrawn leaving only the Eurocodes. In the UK, Eurocode 2 will replace: BS 8110 for buildings, BS 5400 for bridges, BS 8007 for water-retaining structures and BS 6349 for maritime structures.

Publishing progress from BSI as of March 2008*

Eurocode 2 is published in the UK as BS EN 1992. Part 1-1 was published in December 2004 and Part 1-2 in February 2005: the relevant National Annexes were published in December 2005. These will supercede BS 8110-1, BS 8110-2 and BS 8110-3.

Part 2 was published in December 2005 and it's National Anned was published in December 2007. BS EN 1992-2 was published in December 2005 and its NA is due for publication in October 2007. Together with BS EN 1992-1-1 these will eventually supercede BS 5400-4, BS 5400-7 and BS 5400-8.

Part 3 was published in July 2006 and its National Annex was published in October 2007. Together with BS EN 1992-1-1, this will supercede BS 8007.

BS EN 1992-3 was published in July 2006 with the National Annex due in October 2007. This will supercede BS 8007.

*Progress on publishing all Eurocodes may be found on the BSI website.