Analysis of causes of bridge failures during construction

Over fifty bridge collapses during construction from about twenty countries or cities in the past thirty years were studied. About half of collapses were falsework failures while the remaining were largely contributed by the lacking of consideration of stresses incurred in the partially completed works during erection. Procedural errors were always present though not easily extracted from the reports. The findings of the research emphasize the importance of an effective communication system in order to prevent falsework failure and bridge collapse during construction.