The Standard of Care of Engineering Taller, Longer and Lighter

When structures fail, questions can arise as to the structural engineer’s role in that failure. Structures on the cutting edge of engineering technology are no exception. The “Standard of Care” is the boundary between negligence and non-negligence. In the US, an engineer must have and use skill and care equivalent to normally competent practitioners in similar circumstances, applying reasonable diligence and that practitioner’s best judgment. If the “Standard of Care” requires the engineer to have and exercise the skill and care equivalent to normally competent practitioners in similar circumstances, yet no one has engineered a similar structure, to whom is the engineer of the cutting edge structure compared? This paper describes the standard of care of engineers working on structures beyond the typical. Examples from the public record of performance of cutting edge structures are briefly described to examine the engineer’s fulfillment of the duty of care.