Failures in Civil Engineering: Structural, Foundation and Geoenvironmental Case Studies

This special publication consists of a collection of short descriptions of failures case studies in Civil Engineering. The descriptions cover cases in structural, foundation and geoenvironmental engineering and include a brief summary of the case and the lessons learned as well as a number of key references which can form the basis for further study. The cases have been deliberately selected to reflect a broad range of causes and consequences of failures. For example, failures that occurred during construction, under normal operating conditions and under transient environmental loading conditions are included to illustrate the need to consider all phases in the life of a facility during design. Similarly, failures where the consequences ranged from mere loss of use of a facility to catastrophic loss of property and life have been indluded to underline the critical nature of this topic. References for further reading and investigation are provided for each case study to try to help broaden the impact of lessons that have been learned from these unfortunate occurrences.