Use of Failure Case Studies in a Construction Management Course

Reasons for including failure case studies within the undergraduate engineering curriculum have been made by various authors. Typically, specific cases have been integrated into the syllabi of engineering mechanics, structural analysis, and structural design courses. The case studies used generally include catastrophic structural failures, where failure can be defined as a structural collapse, often with significant loss of life. Many civil engineering undergraduate programs include a course in construction planning and management. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge (BOK) for the 21th Century, Second Edition emphasizes a need for Civil Engineers to understand not only the technical areas of analysis and design, but also more of the project management issues that enable a project to go from design to fruition. Hence, it is likely that more programs will include construction management courses. This paper deals with the integration of failure case studies into a construction management course. In addition to structural failures, this course looks at the definition of "failure" from an engineering/construction perspective. It explains that failure includes the inability of an engineered facility to perform as designed. It further explains how failure to be constructed within reasonable time and budgetary constraints falls within the definition of failure. While most students may have the pre-conceived notion that failures are only caused by design deficiencies and perhaps natural hazards, the examples used in this course emphasize how many failures are caused by deficiencies in the design and/or construction process itself. In addition to the use of more typical and catastrophic failure case studies, such as the Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse (Kansas City, Missouri), and the L'Ambiance Plaza Collapse (Bridgeport, Connecticut), the course makes extensive use of the Montreal Olympic Facility design and construction to demonstrate how deficiencies in the design and construction process can lead to extreme constructability problems and exorbitant cost overruns. The author also shows how the inclusion of the case studies addresses some of the more difficult areas to address in the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) evaluation criteria, such as the understanding of the impact of civil and environmental engineering solutions in a global and social context.