Case study on an historical Civil Engineering failure Essay - 1

Case study on an historical Civil Engineering failure - Essay Example The author also cites other definitions of failure in engineering projects to be occasioned by the lack of conformity between the design and the expectations. In these definitions of project failure in the civil engineering sector, the author comes up with a simplified and precise approach for civil engineering designs that takes care of two basic aspects. On one side of the aspects, the author states that everything likely to go wrong in the project is highlighted in the design while protection measures must be introduced on the other hand. It is therefore correct to state that engineering designs are prepared in contemplation of difficult and disturbing realities that perfect conditions of implementation are inexistent. Engineers proactively introduce certain measures to overcome the challenges of imperfect conditions at every stage of project implementation. However, certain factors not foreseen in design, foreseen but inadequately tackled in the design or totally uncontrollable factors present the most difficult challenge to an engineer. Failure in civil engineering sector has been a matter of debate since antiquity, yet how to completely avoid it still remains elusive. This case study enumerates circumstances and details of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse as a classical example of how devastating it could be in case of a failure in the civil engineering sector. Background information is complemented by causes and responses thereon have been included in the essay. In Tacoma, Washington, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge that is over 850 meters of span was designed and commissioned at a cost of about six and a half million US dollars to connect Seattle and Tacoma to Puget Navy Yard. It was seen as a major transport solution for both economic and military purposes around the Olympic peninsula. The University of Washington reported that the bridge was celebrated as a triumph of man’s ingenuity