Since 1987 three MarCom Working Groups WG17, WG31, and WG 103 (formerly known as WG42) have been working on the Inspection, Repair, Maintenance and Life Cycle Management (LCM) of Port Structures.
Working Groups 17 and 31 prepared three reports.
The first report ?Inspection, Maintenance and Repair of Maritime Structures Exposed to Damage and Material Degradation Caused by the Salt Water Environment?, published in 1991, was the stepping stone for the second report ?Life Cycle Management of Port Structures ? General Principles? which was published in 1998.
The Working Group 17 report was revised and updated and re-published in 2004.
The revised WG17 report contains:
? principles and causes of degradation and da-mage of materials
? state-of-the-art methods of inspection, maintenance and repair of port structures
? a guide and an extensive, annotated bibliography
? materials dealt with are timber, stone and masonry, concrete (unreinforced, reinforced and pre-stressed), and steel.
WG31?s report ?Life Cycle Management of Port Structures ? General Principles? contains:
? introduction to the concept of LCM by first defining the terms used and what is meant by the term LCM
? a chapter on the reasons for undertaking LCM, introduction of the concept of Whole Life Costing. Whilst this is not an essential precursor to LCM, its use at the pre-construction planning phase is an excellent starting point for planning maintenance from the very beginning
? onset to the implementation of LCM ? the latter of which is considerably expanded in the present report.
