Book excerpt: This book presents a selection of the author‘s firsthand experience with incidents related to reinforced and prestressed concrete structures, helping readers gain an understanding of errors that can occur in order to avoid making them. He includes mistakes discovered at the design stage, ones that led to failures, and some that involved partial structure collapse all of which required remedial action to ensure safety. The book focuses on specific incidents that occurred at various points in the construction process, including mistakes related to structural misunderstanding, extrapolation of codes of practice, and poor construction.