Lessons from historical bridge failures

Abstract

This paper presents reviews of the histories of seven large bridges that failed or required repair due to a weakness in design either during construction or shortly after being brought into service. All seven failures played a significant role in developing the civil engineering profession's knowledge of structural action and materials behaviour. The author builds upon the important historical research work of others to show that these case histories still hold lessons for the profession today. in particular, they all had some precedent, which at the time went largely unnoticed, indicating that such failures may be controlled or foreseen.