AN ENGINEERING A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTORS AWAY

Opinion Section: AN ENGINEERING A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTORS AWAY Are you guilty or just ignorant? (Part 1) Road Shoulders by Romeo B. Santos

The “road right of way” is the extent of the road area that is owned by the government. It includes the road pavement, the shoulders, and the area beyond the shoulders. The Maharlika highway’s road right of way is 30 meters. This means that 15 meters from the center of the road and measured towards the left and right is owned by the government. Further, it means that nobody can use this area for any purpose without the permission of the government. Parts of this area are the shoulders of the road. These are the areas on the left and right side of the road pavement. The road pavement is the area of the road used by traveling vehicles, it maybe covered with concrete, asphalt, etc. The purposes of the shoulders are for emergency stop of vehicles, unloading and loading of cargoes and passengers, and for the use of pedestrians. Therefore, the road shoulders must be free from any obstruction. As we traverse the highway, we can observe that the shoulders are used by some residents as permanent parking areas, stores, shops, porches, part of the house, etc. These illegal acts are the reasons why the pedestrians are already occupying the pavement whenever they are walking along the highway. The pedestrians are dangerously sharing the pavement with moving vehicles when in fact they should be occupying the shoulders. It is also a common sight in the highway that loading and unloading of cargoes are done within the road pavement which obstructs the free flow of vehicles. This and all other violations on the use of shoulders are some of the major causes of road accidents. If only all of us; from highway, building, and LTO officials; and road users and residents along the highway; will cooperate to follow the rules; accidents can be prevented and we will be traveling along the highway safely and conveniently. NATIONAL BUILDING CODE (NBC) MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS Here are some of the minimum requirements in the NBC -Minimum size and reinforcement of columns Size: 8” by 9” for rectangular columns, Reinforcements: 4 pcs. 16 mm diameter deformed bars. Air space requirements: School room = 3 cu.m. with 1 sq.m. of floor area per person Offices, workshop, factories = 12 cu.m of air space per person Habitable room = 14 cu.m. of air space per person -Sizes and dimension of rooms Rooms of human habitation =6 sq,m. with least dimension of of 2.0 Kitchen = 3 sq.m. with least dimension of 1.5 m Bath and toilet = 1.2 sq.m. with least dimension of 0.9 m Romeo Santos is a professor at TTMIST and he was the former head of the College of Engineering. He is the vice president of the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE)-Calbayog City chapter. He holds a Master of Engineering major in Civil Engineering degree. He is both a civil and a geodetic engineer. RETHGIL EDIS Rethgil edis is from boboyans language which means Lighter Side Learn to Manipulate Minds by Romeo B. Santos How about if you let your friends think of a number and after multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction you’ll be able to guess the answer. You try it first and find out the secret of the trick as fast as you can. If you are older than 15 years old you’ll be able to know the secret right away. Here’s the trick. “Think of any number. Using this number, add 10 (solve mentally), then subtract 4, then add 2, then subtract 1, then subtract your number (the number you were instructed to think), multiply the answer by 2, and then add 1”. Taadaaang…! The answer is 15. You can actually use this trick to a group and guess their answers at the same time correctly. This trick is for children only but it is also for adults who want to be children forever. My e-mail address is rombrixsantos@yahoo.com just in case…