The civil engineer has played a major part in the development of this nation's vast infrastructure. Today, the infrastructure is in serious need of repair. The problem today is severe, and encompasses roads, bridges, dams, mass transit systems, and sewage and water systems. A poor infrastructure causes inconveniences, costs money, inhibits growth, and is unsafe. What should be the civil engineer's role in resolving the infrastructure problem? Civil engineers must find and announce infrastructure problems. They must be creative in their work. Civil engineers must stress the importance of maintenance and the fallacy of reducing maintenance to save money. They must reevaluate engineering standards in accordance with current engineering considerations. Finally, the civil engineer must become politically involved to take greater control of public works projects.

Previous research, funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation and carried out at MIT, demonstrated modeling approaches that could be used to determine the most effective allocation of risk between owner and contractor, where construction buyers were willing to share in the risks of construction. While risk allocation to the designer may have some impact on total project cost through increased design fees, the writers hypothesize that the major consequence of imposing undue risks on designers would be the promotion of overly conservative designs. Furthermore, the writers hypothesize that the overconservatism will be greatest in unique or specialized projects where no “similar” projects exist for comparison of designs. This study carries on the approaches used in the earlier work and investigates whether varying the risks and liabilities imposed upon the designers of rock tunnels for underground mass transit systems will affect the degree of conservatism in the design solutions that they develop. The study finds that nontechnical risks and liabilities imposed upon designers have a significant effect on the degree of conservatism in the designs that they develop. Moreover, the relative cost impact of the “overdesign” caused by imposing large risks on designers is found to be greatest where geological conditions are most favorable.

This paper describes the problem currently facing the building design profession and construction industry with regard to field observation. It states current A/E attitudes on the subject and recommends specific steps to be taken for improvement.