Annual General Meeting

The AGM was held in Newbury in April 2009 and re-elected the Officers for the ensuing year, namely:

The Meeting also agreed to proceed with the update of our website and continue with the work programme already in place.

Occupational Training

The Bridge Deck Waterproofing Association (BDWA), having played a full part on the CITB Occupational Working Group for Structural Waterproofing, is now in the process of establishing a training and assessment programme which will enable operatives employed by its members engaged in bridge deck waterproofing to attain NVQ Level 2 and qualify for a CSCS card. This is regarded as an important and essential requirement and discussions are ongoing with CITB and BBA to implement an appropriate procedure.

Highways Authorities Product Approval Scheme (HAPAS)

HAPAS was set up by the Highways Agency, CSS and The British Board of Agrement (BBA) to develop approval processes for products, materials and systems used in highways and associated areas. Various Specialist Groups were set up to study specific market areas and produce guidelines which would include details of testing procedures, assessment criteria and quality assurance requirements used in the evaluation process carried out by BBA.

BDWA sat on Specialist Group 7 which concentrated on bridge deck waterproofing in UK and fought vigorously for the raising of standards to appropriate levels for modern products and systems, particularly in performance trials and testing procedures. However, some significant revisions proposed by BDWA were ultimately not adopted due to a wish to be consistent with proposed harmonised European standards that aim, to some extent, to avoid removing low performance systems from the market. It is feared that a great opportunity to promote excellence in UK bridge deck waterproofing has been missed.

Members are now undertaking the work necessary for certification. It is anticipated that HAPAS will be implemented in 2010/11.