Construction Pathology in the United States

In the United States, several engineering organizations are currently working to enhance the open discussion of failures in the professional literature with the aim that lessons be more quickly incorporated into design. Among these organizations is the Technical Council on Forensic Engineering of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). This report briefly reviews the activities of ASCE/TCFE; the definition of "failure" used by TCFE is given and some of the root causes of failures and performance deficiencies in constructed facilities are identified.