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19th Issue - December 2011   

IMIA NEWS  News from the International Association of Engineering Insurers 

In this edition Page News from the Executive Committee 2 What is new on www.imia.com 2 Photographic Competition 2012 3 Pipeline Project in the Baltic Sea 4 Embedded Sensor Technology on New Orleans' Twin Span Bridge 7

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Explosion hitting Vasiliko power plant, Cypros 8

Water Bridge crossing the river Elbe near Magdeburg, Germany 9 How to enjoy TV without power connection? 10

Collaps of Bridge at Madhya Pradesh, India  More inside on page 5 

1 News from the Executive Committee

The annual conference in Amsterdam in September this year was attended by 104 Delegates from 33 countries. This high number reflects the enjoyable growth of IMIA membership. The excellent response we got from Delegates on topics, presentations and organisation is an appreciation of how IMIA is developing, and the suggestions and comments received will help us to move on in the right direction.

- At the elections at the conference Oscar Treceno (Nationale Suisse) was elected Chairman to succeed Neil Clutterbuck who had to resign due to other duties taken up at Allianz UK. Max Benz (XL Insurance) was elected EC Member.

- The EC had its last meeting on 1st December and the evaluations, and responses received from attendees were analysed for consideration at future conferences. Other points discussed were:

- Confirmed new Members: LWG Consulting UK (Mamoon Alayh) and Marsh Ltd. (Scott Peachey)

- Development of fees and IMIA costs: Costs are rising and especially those for conferences. Whereas Member and Delegate fees can be kept stable, an increase in the conference participation fee will have to be decided. The change will be advised once agreed.

- New topics for Working Groups and Breakout Sessions: The number of new topics suggested by Delegates this year were only few and we are open for further suggestions, If anyone of our Members has a special topic for IMIA to discuss / elaborate, please advise the IMIA Secretariat.

- Progress in organising next conference: As announced at the Amsterdam conference, the next IMIA conference will be held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 22nd to 26th Sep. 2012. The first steps of arranging hotel and conference facilities have been made and details are being worked upon.

- Progress of IMIA sub-committees: The three sub-committees for development of Marketing IMIA, Statistics and Knowledge Sharing were presenting their activities, and discussions arose what results could be achieved, especially in respect of the most difficult topic of improving collection of data for the IMIA statistics. By the way:

We’re going to be asking what you think…….. 

……..about knowledge sharing 

Look out for a link that will be e‐mailed to you 

asking you to take part in an IMIA survey. 

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2 What is new on www.imia.com

The new picture on the home page is the winning photo of last photo competition.

- All IMIA Working Group papers presented at the conference and the special presentations given by guests and IMIA Members are now in the IMIA Library / Publications.

- The IMIA Premium and Claims statistics have been updated. The presentations can be found under Library.

- The list of new IMIA working groups is located under Annual Conference / link to pdf.

- A selection of photos taken during the conference can be seen in the Members’ Area. We recommend setting the Zoom factor of your browser to 75% for that purpose.

- Various articles on last IMIA conference have been published in insurance newspapers. Copies are attached to the press release document on our website. This is a direct link to the press release: http://www.imia.com/downloads/imia_press_releases/press_conference_2011_10_6.pdf

- Reunion Reinsurance Brokers had an interesting Engineering Insurance discussion meeting in Munich in November. The details are contained in a brochure and are worth reading for better understanding a few typical questions. The IMIA Section Weblinks / Educational Material contains a link to this brochure: http://www.imia.com/weblinks.php#21

- Finally an IMIA Workspace has been arranged for the new IMIA working Groups and also for the IMIA sub-committees, whose members have been informed of the details of use.

3 As regards our photo competition, following the success we had this year with the winner announced at the Amsterdam conference, IMIA has started a new competition. Please send in one or two of your best photos on any technical or loss matter. The competition rules are now on the IMIA website Members Area – submenu Photo Competition. Most of last 2011 photos can be seen on the 2012 calendar there (for any printed copy left ask the Secretariat). - The new winner will be announced at the Rio de Janeiro conference Sep. 2012.

4 The biggest Pipeline Project in the Baltic Sea (by Munich Re – Joachim Wiechers / Thomas Friedrich) Pipelines are among the most challenging risks in off shore business. This is especially true of the mega gas pipeline projects across the Baltic Sea. The Nord Stream consortium chose Munich Re as the leading insurer for this project.

Nord Stream, is installing two parallel pipelines each of 1,224 kilometres, directly linking Europe and the Russian gas fields via the Baltic Sea (see Fig. below). Total investment is projected at €7.4bn. The two pipelines together will transport 55 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year.

This is one of the largest off shore projects ever to have been realised. The first pipeline started operations in November 2011.

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Planned pipeline route Source: Nord Stream Boundary of the economic zones Boundary of national territorial waters Coating plants and logistics centres

Such a technically sophisticated and complex project imposes considerable demands on all concerned. The ships must lay the pipes within a very narrow corridor because the two pipelines run through the exclusive economic zones of Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

The challenge was to develop a viable insurance concept from start to finish of this highly complex project. In doing so, all the different interests of risk managers, banks and insurers, as well as the know-how of brokers and experts, had to be reconciled. It is the most comprehensive underwriting project undertaken by the Engineering Underwriters of the off shore risks department of Munich Re to date and the largest facultative single Engineering risk on their books.

Cover was needed for the pipes’ transportation from their various production locations to where the pipes were to be coated in concrete with a layer between 60 and 110 mm thick in order to increase their resistance to mechanical damage. After coating the pipes were sent to the logistics centres supplying the pipelay vessels. Everything had to be planned with military precision to ensure that the over 200,000 individual segments were always delivered at exactly the right moment in time. The phase most complex is the actual laying of the pipelines in the Baltic Sea. Laying pipelines on land normally does not pose any major problems, but this is vastly more difficult at a depth of up to 200 metres below the surface of the sea. If problems are encountered here, they give rise to high costs as the repair work can only be undertaken by special-purpose ships.

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2: The pipelay vessel is responsible for laying more than 850 km of pipeline.

1: Loading of coated pipes each weighing 25 tonnes on to a transport vessel in the logistics centre

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3: Up to 250 pipeline segments are welded together on board every day. All welds are then examined with millimetre precision by non-destructive testing.

Innumerable mines were laid in the Baltic Sea during the last two World Wars. The pipe-laying corridor for the Nord Stream pipeline crosses these particularly dangerous areas at various points. The seabed has been searched for mines. Wherever necessary, the actual pipe-laying work has been preceded by mine-sweeping activities. The remaining risk due to undiscovered mines and other unexploded ordnance is also covered by the policy.

In addition to this specific hazard, the pipe-laying work itself also entails a considerable risk. Statistics say that a loss must be expected roughly every 1,000 kilometres when laying such pipeline. This means that Nord Stream is likely to incur 2.4 losses. In the worst case, the pipeline would be so severely damaged while being laid that the pipe ruptures and seawater can enter. In the trade, this is known as a “wet buckle”.

Due to its weight, the Nord Stream pipeline could only be recovered to surface in relatively shallow waters and then repaired on board a pipelay vessel. For most of the route, however, the sea is too deep to permit such repairs, with the result that the necessary welding work would have to be undertaken directly on the seabed. Norwegian firms have refined a technology using pressure chambers on the seabed for these repairs. A first-loss limit was agreed with Nord Stream – for each line of the pipeline.

In May 2011, the three segments of the first pipeline were installed on schedule and without incident. These pipeline segments were undergoing testing and subsequently welded together.

The policy involves insurance of the pipelines during operation. The main challenge is that, when the first pipeline is taken into service, the laying of the second line will still be under way directly alongside.

A Marine Warranty Surveyor is permanently on hand to identify critical developments and report on changes in the risk situation. Risk control also includes loss workshops with the client.

The Nord Stream project is due for completion in October 2012, when the second line will also be taken into service.

5 Collapse of Bridge at Madhya Pradesh, (provided by Hari Radhakrishnan)

Indian newspapers reported this interesting loss which may serve as an illustration to the IMIA WG paper on Completed Engineered Civil Risks published in Amsterdam this year and the WG paper on transit cover of last year.

4: The finished pipeline leaves the pipelay vessel via the stinger with an unsupported span before touching the seabed. Special holding devices known as tensioners keep the pipeline taut to prevent it buckling. 

The bridge over the Binapur river, located in Gairatganj in the Indian State of Madhya Pradesh had been designed for vehicles with a max load of 15 tons only. A check point had been set up in order to control the traffic over this bridge. Apparently it had either allowed overloaded trucks to pass this bridge or simply did not check them.

In this case, a jumbo truck carrying unusually heavy machinery totalling 400 tons (according to the news media) was on its way to Chennai, The itinerary had been planned correctly by the transport

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company marking critical traffic points, but this did not include this bridge over the Binapur river. Apparently the driver had decided to take a short cut over this bridge which due to the extraordinary weight gave way and collapsed. The bridge, the truck and its heavy load fell into the Binapur river, two persons were killed and four were missing, among them the driver who chose to try his luck by running away.

A case has been filed against the company which had built and operated the toll station and which had let the jumbo truck pass.

There were no details given on the type of bridge, its age nor the loss amounts. In any case, the lesson for insurers is that compliance with controlling maximum admissible loads was not enforced. The total weight exceeded by far the maximum load which the bridge was designed for.

If there was a CECR cover in force, there may be some discussion on whether it used convenient clauses regarding weight restrictions and proper control of traffic loads, and on responsibilities of the operators of the toll station, the transport company and forwarding agencies etc.

6 Embedded Sensor Technology on New Orleans' Twin Span Bridge

 

 

          

           A sampling of one of the sensors on the Bridge

Rebar cages for columns on the M19 pier are laced with cables and sensors, which were put to an early use in a load test to simulate the 1.8-million-lb lateral load of a ship collision.

Talking about bridges, an interesting report reaches us, interesting indeed for insurers who cover the construction of bridges and similar sophisticated structures as well as their subsequent operation. It is about the engineers’ dream to better understand what really happens in structures when heavy loads and forces are involved and how these flow compared to designers’ assumptions.

A 5.4-mile-long, $803-million I-10 Twin Span Bridge outside of New Orleans was set to become operational in October this year. It does not only signal the region's recovery from 2005's Hurricane Katrina but also has become a beacon of cutting-edge information-technology usage on bridge design and construction. A bridge was designed that is much higher and sturdier than its

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Data cables and sensors join rebar and hand tools as elements of the construction landscape on the I-10 Twin Span Bridge (by courtesy of La DOTD)

Rebar cages for columns on the M19 pier are laced with cables and sensors, which were put to early use in a load test to simulate the 1.8-million-lb lateral load of a ship collision (by courtesy of Geocomp)

predecessor (built in 1960 and in part destroyed by Katrina) and which incorporates many redundancies to resist ship impact, wave- surge uplift and wind.

A complete sensor system, i.e. an embedded sensor array — including, from deck to piles, a concentration of devices in a key bent and pier of the main navigation span — already has served to validate significant construction and design calculations, even before the array goes into service providing structural health monitoring during operations.

A total of 340 devices, including weigh-in-motion sensors, corrosion meters, strain gauges, tilt meters, inclinometers, accelerometers and water-pressure cells, will help paint a much clearer picture of the effects and ramifications of movement in the bridge, such as traffic loads, environmental factors such as wave action and storm surge and incidents such as ship impacts.

The monitoring system feeds the data by fiber-optic lines automatically. There will be more multiple projects in the future to do all the analysis of the in-coming data. Already now the data provide important information for future bridge design as well as the bridge's operations and helps to better understand the bridge's behavior and the effects of that load from top to bottom.

As a summary this new analysis tool helps to compare design methods to reality, it will refine and improve design methods and consequently may give insurers more confidence who shoulder a large part of design-related consequential damages.

For more info see Angelle Morgeron’s article in ENR Construction: http://enr.construction.com/infrastructure/transportation/2011/0926-TheRightStuff.asp?page=1

7 Explosion hitting Vasilikos power plant, Cyprus

Next time you get a risk check what is being stored next door!

Infrassure were informed by contacts in London of this large explosion. They heard the following from public news: “The Vasilikos power station was destroyed on 11 July 2011 in a blast of confiscated Iranian munitions. The explosion occurred at a naval base on the island in July leaving 13 dead and knocking out its main power plant, triggering daily blackouts that have severely affected the financial and tourism sectors on which it depends. Damage from the blast is estimated at many hundred million EUR and as much as 20% of gross domestic product.”

IMIA had a picture of the damaged boiler shown at the photo competition at the IMIA conference in Amsterdam in September this year. Further pictures of the power plant see below.

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This accident created quite a stir in London and the claim for the power station is said to be around 200-300m EUR. Not knowing the underlying policy it is not clear whether this event is excluded. This is not likely to fall under the War and Terrorism exclusion.

Detail given by the broker: Vassilikos Power Station assets: EUR 662,736,000.

8 Water Bridge crossing the river Elbe near Madgeburg, Germany

(http://www.amusingplanet.com/2011/04/incredible-magdeburg-water-bridge-in.html)

Have you ever seen a river crossing a river? This is the channel-bridge (navigable aqueduct) over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany. This is real engineering! - 918 meters long, six years of construction, 500 million EUR.

This photo was taken on the day of inauguration

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The aqueduct connects the Elbe-Havel canal to the Mittelland canal and allows ships to cross over the Elbe River.

To those who appreciate engineering of projects, here's a puzzle for Engineers and physicists.

Question: Did that bridge have to be designed to withstand the additional weight of crossing ships and barges or just the weight of the water?

Answer: It only needs to be designed to withstand the weight of the water!

Why? A ship always displaces that amount of water that weighs the same as the ship, regardless of how heavily a ship may be loaded.

9 How to enjoy TV without power connection?

No comment by the

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IMIA EC Team