While catastrophic failures are a relatively rare event, partial collapses and performance failures occur on a regular basis throughout the world. This page contains short descriptions and links to selective examples of failures and that are recent occurrances or have caught the attention of the engineering press or general public.
India (12/27/09): Supporting the notion that the most likely time for a structure to collapse is during construction, a bridge over the Chambal river in India collapsed with dozen of individuals killed and missing.
Pittsburgh (12/18/09): David L. Lawrence Convention Center (DLLCC) - An out of court settlement has been reached byThe City County Sports & Exhibition Authority (SEA) to recover $4.78 million from various firms involved in the initial design and construction of the facility as it relates to the February 2007 DLLCC partial collapse of a section of parking garage at the 1.5 million sq. ft. building. More details on the settlement can be found in this article from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
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Tenth Anniversary of the Texax A & M Bonfire Collapse - November 18, 1999: An Aggie tradition that extended back to 1909 ends in tragedy when a "supersized" log bonfire stack collapses during construction killing 12 and injuring numerous others.
See also this AP retrospect article with photos that provide a feeling for the magnitude and size of the bonfire structure.
October:
SF Bay Bridge - Repair of the Repairs (The Famous Bay Bridge Crack). This article provides an assessment and discussion of the problem, original repair, and follow up repair by an individual not involved in the project. It includes a number of photographs that have been annotated to help the reader understand the problem and repair details.
See also the official CALTRANS website (Bay Bridge Info) devoted to the bridge expansion and repair project.
Failures in the News
While catastrophic failures are a relatively rare event, partial collapses and performance failures occur on a regular basis throughout the world. This page contains short descriptions and links to selective examples of failures and that are recent occurrances or have caught the attention of the engineering press or general public.Failures in the News has been renamed Failures News Watch and has been moved to the Building Failures Forum for ease of updates and to facilitate reader comments without the need to set up an account on the Failures Wiki. Please update your bookmarks.
News from 2009
December:
October:
2009