Construction Failure
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DATE: October 19, 2011
SUBJECT: Construction Failure
Introduction
The field of Civil Engineering is the core of all human civilizations. It shows their superiority and advance. Egyptians, Romans, Greeks buildings and constructions are reaming evidences for their intelligence in the field of civil engineering. These magnificent civil engineering legacies went through many experiences of success and failures and gained collective knowledge. Thus, today’s engineers use several engineering legacies to construct magnificent buildings. However, with all the collective knowledge and the technology that current engineers have, failures still occur. Malfunctions occur due to design errors, type of site selection, and the structure of materials. In addition, these failures lead to loss of lives and property. Examples of countries that have experienced construction failures include Kuwait and United States of America. Although Kuwait is a developed country and the United States is one of the most advanced nations in the world, both experience construction failures. Therefore, it can occur to any nation despite the level of technology.
Definition of failure
There are many definitions for construction failure in engineering. Some of them are too general while others are specific. Feld & Carper (1997) states, “Failure is a catastrophic structural collapse”. However, this definition is not reliable because it just defines a few failures. In addition, it does not define specific factors in failures but only gives the overall definition of failure. Feld & Carper (1997) have given a specific definition with a more expressive approach that states, “Nonconformity with design expectation”. This definition is more specific and includes many aspects that help one to understand more about failures.
However, another definition of failure has been adopted by The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Feld &Carper (1997) state, “failure is an unacceptable difference between expected and observed performance”. This definition considers many important factors like the serviceability problems including roof leakages, extreme deformation, early corrosion of materials and insufficient internal environmental structure.
The last definition is the most specific definition as compared to the rest because it comprises more factors of failure, making it easy for one to comprehend. In addition, the relationship between expectation and performance included in this definition is useful and helps to explain many things in realistic and unrealistic perspective. Therefore, it is important to understand the definitions and causes of failure. In addition, failures play an important role in the engineering profession because the experience it gives enables them to learn and perform better in their occupation.
Causes of Construction failures
Several things may cause construction failures. Failures result from assumptions made by engineers on details that seem to be less important when in the real sense; they contribute to inaccurate planning of the project. These assumptions may cause incidents of failure and damage to the construction. As a result, the company suffers loss of money, people and property. Therefore, engineers and workers who do not consider perfection in all their project details, by checking for small mistakes will face a construction failure.
The first category that causes a construction failure is the design errors. The design of the construction is very important in the process of starting the construction, because if the engineer is undetermined in the design and does not care about the specific and small details, it may lead to construction failure. It is for this reason that engineers should take time to study every single detail in the design. For example in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, On May 31, 1889 most of Johnstown was destroyed by a three-story wall of water killing two thousand and two hundred of the inhabitants (Feld & Carper, 1997). This was the worst civil disaster ever experienced in the America. The tragedy was caused by a privately owned earth rock dam. This dam was designed by several construction companies, and every company inherited the project and they added new piece of construction work. This resulted to failures such as leakage and no effective discharge system. Consequentially, Feld & Carper (1997) states, “the water level could not be lowered to make repairs. The water capacity entering the dam was “285 m3/ min (10.000 ft3/min) and the spillway capacity was only 170 m3/min (6000 ft3/ min)”.
The water rose to the extent of overtopping the dam and the engineer who was in charge at that time informed the unleashed that a 12m (40-ft)-high wall of water was traveling at 25 km/h (15mi/h). Another example is in the capital city of Kuwait. The project was to construct a twelve-story building. The engineer in charge was not following the code of the load weight. Actually, the engineer constructed with concrete that could not hold the weight of the building, so the engineer’s design had an error. This caused a collapse in the whole construction and more than seventy-eight workers had passed away ). These two design failures caused huge lost in money and lives.
The second cause of construction failure is the site selection. The site selection is one of the most important things for engineers because the site may affect the project. Therefore, if the engineer did not choose the site very carefully, and fail to carry out accurate operations in geological surveying may lead to construction failure. For instance, Jaber Al Ahmad international stadium in Kuwait established in 2001 next to the capital city that contained several entries and exits of different high ways collapsed because of its poor location (http:www.news.gov.kw/). This stadium had a strategic and perfect location from economic and traffic perspective. However, the stadium’s underground site was not stable and due to the existence of underground wells, that was creating a cavity.
The stadium’s engineering team ignored the geological survey as they were choosing the location. After four years of work, they completed the project and they faced a problem. Geologists noticed the wells cavity after the stadium was established. They researched on the stadium’s capacity and realized that if a big number of audiences of twenty thousand or more occupied the stadium it might collapse. Hence, if the engineers failed to spot the error in the right time, it would have led to the biggest civil disaster in Kuwait. As a result, this expense of the project costs made the construction company to go bankrupt.
The third cause of construction failure is the quality of the structure of the materials. If the structure of the materials are poor and do not have good quality, it will lead to construction failure. For example, Mushrif Sewage treatment Plan in Kuwait had a big failure in the last two years that led to a big environmental disaster because the engineer who was responsible used a poor quality pipes that caused leakage (htt://www.news.gov.kw/a/31472). The construction company had to first find the source of leakage, and stop the Sewage from spreading to the residential areas and the sea. This process took a long time and the sewage affected some of landscapes. As a result, the present government has to bay for the re-construction of the sewage lines and contain the pollution.
Another example is the AshtabulaBridge in Ohio. During a winter snowstorm on December 29, 1876, AshtabulaBridge collapsed (Feld & Carper, 1997). The railroad bridge served for eleven years. Because of the collapse, eleven cars and a train locomotive filled sixty-five feet’s into Ashtabula creek (Feld & Carper, 1997). It caused over eighty deaths and because of a fatigue and brittle fracture at a flow in an iron casting (Fed & Carper, 1997). The AshtabulaBridge caused a deep canyon next to the LakeShore. The collapse effects were tragic to the extent of killing over eighty people.
The Ashtabula bridge construction was designed purposely to cut costs but it resulted to adding more expenses due to the effects of its destruction (Pinsdorf, 2004). An engineer who was driving the train on the bridge between the state of Pennsylvania and Chicago noticed that the train was going down and heard a threatening crack sound. He managed to survive as he was fighting for his life by gasping for air. The area experienced a heavy snow downpour and windstorms, which fell into the creek. As a result, there was tragic loss of property as eleven vehicles fell in the creek (Campbell, 2008). The train carried over one hundred people including the railway employee staff. The vehicles fell on top of one another and items such as lamps and stoves made them to blaze on fire. The fire later spread to where other people were located and burnt them to death. Fire rescue teams struggled in rescuing the victims but were not able to save a large number of the trapped population.
Preventing Construction Failures
In order to prevent construction failures, several steps should be taken. These include educating constructors on the errors that should be avoided. This education should be provided in learning institutions to enable students become competent constructors and engineers. Another helpful technique is learning from past mistakes. Those errors done in the past should act like a learning tool for constructors to avoid such mistakes in future. There should also be research carried out that will help in identifying appropriate ways of constructing without risking failure. After a construction design has been made, it is important to go through the design several times. These reviews should be done by the constructor, architect, engineer and any other relevant person.
Apart from the construction team being cautious of how they build, the relevant government authority should also go through the plan of the bridge and approve whether it has been designed properly. Some constructions will show signs of failure before collapsing. Constructions do not necessarily fail because they were designed or built poorly. The use of a bridge could contribute to failure. Lack of maintenance could be another reason for construction failure. It is therefore important to practice safety measures when operating within the construction. Any construction being put up must be built by qualified personnel. If the architects, engineers and the constructors are not qualified or knowledgeable enough, then the construction will likely fail. The government should ensure the operating personnel are licensed. It is important to insure the construction of failure or any loss that might have occurred. Although this is not a preventive measure, it is a vital precaution and it should be implemented.
Conclusion
Construction failure should be dealt with in due process especially by construction and engineering companies such as real estate or power industries. Assumption of details relating to this issue should not be tolerated because it leads to greater consequences for the parties involved. Construction companies should focus on analyzing details involving the quality of materials and the construction location to prevent future damages that would cause effects that are more adverse.
References
Campbell, B. C. (2008). Disasters, accidents, and crises in American history: A reference guide to the nation’s most catastrophic events. New York: Facts on File.
Feld, J., & Carper, K. L. (1997). Construction failure. New York: Wiley.
Pinsdorf, M. K. (2004). All crises are global: Managing to escape chaos. New York: FordhamUniversity Press.
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