Frame and Form

This is one of those books that probably no designer wants to see your work reflected. However Björn Åkesson work is very valuable because it shows examples of what happens when things go wrong, very bad.

Home - Understanding Bridge Collapses

Åkesson in this book analyzes the reasons for the catastrophic failures of 20 bridges, from the bridge over the River Dee (1847) England to also unfortunate Sgt Bridge. Aubrey Cosens VC Memorial (2003) in Canada.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge photo by Bettmann / Corbis

Beyond the healthy curiosity associated with wanting to know why these unfortunate accidents occurred Åkesson shows why failure. Most of them are related to errors during the design phase of the bridges and hence the interest for designers of today.

Cleddau Bridge Collapse

As is predictable in a book that covers more than 150 year history of the bridges listed typologies are varied and most of them are already obsolete, despite that the causes of the failures and buckling of plates is, resonance structure, fatigue or lack of bracing connections are still very present today.

Failure of the West Gate Bridge during its construction

That's why Understanding Bridge Collapses is a useful tool for today's designer and a highly recommended reading for anyone who wants to ensure that past mistakes are not repeated.

Metadata

Understanding Bridge Collapses

Bjorn Akesson
Taylor & Francis.
276 pages. English.
ISBN: 978-0415436236.

Articles about the collapse of the West Gate in Australia:

An Engineer’s aspect – The West Gate Bridge Collapse–on its 39th Anniversary.

In this Article shows the link between the use of standard BS5400 – Part 3 and research undertaken by the disaster of the West Gate.

Article which analyzes the impact on the industry from collapse of the West Gate.

Post in Wired on the bridge over the Strait of Tacoma.