Customer Reviews

Understanding Bridge Collapses

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This is truly a magnificent book. The author, Bjorn Akesson, who is a bridge engineer with strong credentials both academically and professionally, investigates the collapses of 20 bridges of a variety of types from around the world. The collapses date from 1847 to 2003 and the book organizes their investigations chronologically.

The book is about 250 pages, which means that the investigations average about 12 pages each. In my opinion, this is an optimal length, since it gives Akesson enough space to meaningfully explore the causes and mechanisms of the collapses, including development of practical analytical models and presentation of key calculations, while avoiding burdening the reader with extraneous details which aren't really relevant to the lessons to be learned.

Although Akesson's non-native English takes a bit of getting used to, his discussion is plenty clear and I like the way his personality comes through. This clarity enables us to see that Akesson has excellent command of structural theory, as well as excellent intuition into structural behavior. It may seem odd to say this about a book dealing with collapses but, because of Akesson's analytical and expository skill, I found reading this book to be a joy, and in fact I don't recall ever having enjoyed reading a bridge engineering book more than this one.

I'll go beyond recommending this book, and will instead say that it's mandatory reading for all practicing bridge engineers. The only caveat is that I think some professional experience is needed in order to fully understand and benefit from the book.

Finally, let me express my enthusiasm for this book in another way. I read the book cover to cover, and will surely do so again. My only lament is that the book isn't five times longer!