**8.2. Personnel**

Bamboo structure should be designed and constructed by personnel having appropriate skills and experience. Similarly, qualified and experienced personnel should carry out the supervision and quality control during construction. The expertise and skills of the personnel involved must be recorded at an early stage as part of the quality management submission of the contractor and then updated periodically throughout the duration of the project.

• Discoloration of the bamboo demonstrated as a change from the normal colour of the bamboo which does not impair the strength of bamboo or bamboo composite products.

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• Collapse of the culm occurring on account of excessive shrinkage, particularly in thickwalled immature bamboo, and causing a reduction in structural strength. This defect is demonstrated as a development of a wide split resulting in a depression on the outer sur-

• Splitting at the end of a bamboo as an effect of drying which occurs both from outer and

• Surface cracking demonstrated as fine surface cracks not detrimental to strength which can

• Wrinkles and deformation in cross section, during drying, which occurs in immature round bamboos of most species; in thick-walled pieces, besides this deformation the outer surface becomes uneven and wrinkled. Very often the interior wall can develop a crack below these wrinkles, running parallel to the axis and decreasing the structural strength

• If the engineer has identified a **fire risk**, the QA should check if the necessary treatment has

The client should ensure that the structure will be **used and operated** in accordance with the design limit briefs. Periodic inspections and monitoring of the use of the structure and the loads experienced should be carried out and the records kept in the QAM during the lifetime of the structure. Emergency action plan should also be prepared by the designer/engineer in order to cover the mitigation measures to be put in place during or after the application of

The existing standards [30] specify that adequate maintenance is required for the structure without providing definition of adequacy and the quality control procedures associated with it. Knowing that one of the main characteristics of soil bioengineering works is that their full efficiency is only reached once the living plants have rooted and active growth has commenced [39], it is critically important that the maintenance is planned and controlled in order to accelerate the establishment process and shorten the time between construction and reaching full operational capacity. In this respect, the quality control should cover maintenance during the plant establishment phase (recording the percentage of ground cover, application of fertilizers and mulches, survival/failure rate of plantings/seedlings, inspection and acceptance/rejection of all live and inert plant materials), aftercare during the plant establishment phase (replacement of inadequate/dead plant material, fertilization, weeding, cultivation, mulching, irrigation, protection/preservation, staking/tying) and aftercare during development stage (periodic inspections during 2–5 years after construction and, if needed, replacement of any inadequate materials, fertilization, irrigation, ground preparation, mulching, mowing, pruning, staking/tying, pest disease control [14, 40], coppicing and pollarding).

interior wall surfaces of bamboo as well as the end at the open ends.

reduce the structural strength if it occurs at the nodes.

been applied to the bamboo prior to construction/commission.

accidental loads or in the event of structural failure.

face of the culm.

of the culm

**8.6. Maintenance**
