ABSTRACT
Historically, failures have played an important role in advancing engineering knowledge and providing lessons for the future. Many engineering failures have been followed by a public enquiry such as a Royal Commission, with terms of reference intended to determine the causes of failure and how such failures can be avoided in the future. The reports of public inquiries have a number of advantages over case law on failures, even though they may not be as well-known after the passage of time. Chapter 21 reviews the procurement of Quebec Bridge by a design and construct contract over 100 years ago. This bridge collapsed during construction with tragic loss of life. The collapse had clear “technical” causes, but the Royal Commission report identified a number of contractual issues of time, cost and quality that were contributing factors in the collapse.
