Structural Engineering Course

Admin Information

Course
On
USAR Strucural Engineering

Poggioreale, Sicily, Italia

12th – 17th of May 2019

Course Admin Information

Focal Point: Peter Goxharaj

Senior Program Officer for Rapid Deployment Units
THW Headquarters
Foreign Operations Department
Provinzialstr. 93
D 53127 Bonn
Mobile: +49 173 2940831
Email: peter.goxharaj@thw.de

THW – German Federal Agency for Technical Relief 1

 Structural Engineering Course
Admin Information
Introduction:

The structural engineer is the key person for safety of the rescuers and the victim.
His role is crucial for the structural assessment as well as for the decisions of the
rescue group on spot. Nonetheless, in INSARAG there is so far no common training,
standardized curriculum or sharing of lessons learnt. Neither is there in many
countries a series of quake related topics in the university. So very often the engineer
faces a critical situation in the first mission: making decisions without being sure on
the local building code, work quality and even worse, often without proper knowledge
of debris structures.

The German Federal Agency for Technical Relief and the Italian Civil Protection are
hosting this Structural Engineer Course within the INSARAG framework.

The course will happen in Poggioreale, Sicily, a village that was destroyed in an
earthquake in 1968 and is kept as a national heritage since that time! This real
disaster place will be used for a full day ASR2 field exercise within the course.

Task of the course:

The course is structured in a mix of lectures, break-out sessions, open discussion

and field work. We will have guest lecturers from the German research centre for
Geoscience (GFZ) and Experts from Americas, AEME and Asia/Pacific region!

The course will:

- Enhance your USAR engineering knowledge
- Build/Expand your professional network
- Give you inspiration by intl. experiences in the break out sessions
- Provide you with an example of a realistic scenario for an ASR2 exercise
- Help INSARAG to collect information for a planned USAR engineer hand book

THW as the host will ensure that the mix of experienced and less experienced
engineers is fine so that all of the course participants will get the most out of this
course.

The course language is English! You must have knowledge of functional English.

The dress code for the course is casual except for the field exercise!

Your duties as participants:

We count on you to enhance the course by sharing as much experience, opinion and
best practise as possible. And this means that we might continue even after the daily
end of the course, maybe while having a drink at the bar?!

Please bring documents (printed and in electronic version) to share with the others!
And do not forget to clear with management/HQ if they might be used by others as
best practice, i.e. sharing copyright control.

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 Structural Engineering Course
Admin Information
Each participant shall prepare a very short Powerpoint about a specific event/mission
to share with the others. It might be about a very difficult rescue, or about national
USAR engineer training, SOP’s etc. pp.

As we will have an excursion into the old destroyed village, a minimum of PPE has to
be brought to the course: safety boots and helmet. No one will be allowed to enter
without the PPE!

Travel arrangements

All participants shall book flights in a schedule that will enable them to arrive at
Palermo airport (PMO) on Sunday 21st of October till noon (not later than 01:00 pm).
Participants that arrive later have to arrange their own transport from Airport to
Poggioreale, sorry! For those who will arrive the evening before, we can recommend
addresses of nearby hotels to the airport for about 60€ a night.

The meeting point for all is the coffee bar after the baggage claim in the arrival area
after leaving the arrival zone, i.e. passing doors/custom.

On Friday 17th we will leave Poggioreale quite early to ensure that the morning flights
will be caught. Please arrange your return flight booking accordingly, i.e. not earlier
than 0930-10:00 am from PMO.

We are sorry but we can not arrange pick up service from the other two intl. airport in
Sicily! Within Poggioreale we don’t offer internal transport, as all guesthouses can be
reached easily within maximum of ten minutes walking.

Participants from outside the EU should check visa regulations:

https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/italy-visa/

Please keep in mind that you must apply for a Italian Visa, not Germany! And do not
forget that visa application in the responsible Italian Embassy might take up to six
weeks! If needed THW will assist you with an invitation letter on request!

Course venue, Accommodation and Food

The theoretical lessons will happen in a more or less basic environment: the former
school/kindergarten of Poggioreale! So please don’t expect a high tech conference
centre! Anyhow we will have the usual ICT stuff, a recreation area, smoking corner
etc.

The participants will be accommodated in small guest houses with a basic standard.
Single rooms might be available but we cannot guaranty! So be prepared for sharing
a room. There is no hotel available in Poggioreale or nearby! All rooms will be in
walking distance (up to ten minutes max!) to the venue.

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 Structural Engineering Course
Admin Information
The price for the accommodation is 30€ person/night, i.e. 150,- € for the duration of
the course and must be paid in cash! Sorry, but no credit card payment possible! All
participants will receive a receipt from the landlord for their travel reimbursement.

THW will pay for all the meals of the course incl. the coffee/tea breaks! All meals
(breakfast, lunch and dinner) will be served in a restaurant close to the venue! Except
of Sunday and Friday food will be served on this schedule:

Breakfast 07:30 - 08:00 / Lunch 12:45 – 13:45 / Dinner: 20:00

As we are in a rural area, there is no halal or kosher food available. All participants
with religious food rules should inform the hosts, so that we can arrange vegetarian,
chicken or fish/seafood dishes for you!

Other logistics

Poggioreale is based in the hills of central Sicily, a rural area that features mainly
small villages and agriculture. Please do not expect ultra high speed internet and
mobile phone connection. Please remember: We are in the hills! No beach, sorry J

There is a small supermarket for the daily additional needs, a Pharmacy, a tobacco
shop and an ATM is located close to the venue.

The currency in Italy/Sicily is the EURO. ATM and exchange office is available on
arrival at the MPO airport. Based on experience we recommend the use of ATM for
the better exchange rate!

Except of the payment for the accommodation there is hardly money needed, so
please calculate for extra drinks, smoking a maximum of 10 - 20€ a day!

The weather will be nice: Mid Spring, so at noon up to 20-22°C and the evenings
slightly cool at 16°C. It will be mostly sunny, but you never know. Thereof a light
pullover and a raincoat should be included in your luggage

In Sicily the electricity is 230V at 50Hz. You might need an adapter as two types of
plugs are used the EURO version and the Italian one.

Looking forward to meet you soon

THW – German Federal Agency for Technical Relief 4