Sinkholes and Subsidence – Karst and Cavernous Rocks in Engineering and Construction. Tony Waltham, Fred Bell and Martin Culshaw. Springer/Praxis Publishing, Chichester, 2005. €139.05 Hardback, 382 pp. ISBN: 3-540-20752-2

In April 2004 a Florida freeway bridge pier founded in limestone collapsed during construction into the roof of a cave. This event illustrates the need for engineers and geologists to have a clear understanding of the issues addressed in this book. This is reinforced by the fact that extending the proving boreholes by a few metres at the base of each caisson toe, at a cost of a few thousand dollars, would have avoided the estimated $11M remediation costs. That this event occurred too late to be included in this book other than as …