versy: the requirement of durability (over 50 years) versus the risk of progress. We need to ensure that construction elements meet the requirements not only at the time of testing, but also that they will be good enough after tens of years of service life. The nature of an applied science involves the problem of equilibrium between simplicity and accuracy. The "breaking even" in the meaning of probably approximately correct model and value. The risk of estimation error, even a small one, could cause in consequence a catastrophic result.All these problems are discussed in the invited paper opening the section, entitled: "Scientific basis and rules of thumb in civil engineering: Conflict or harmony?", examining the meaning and justification of "the rules of thumb" [3] in the construction field, in which science and engineering are so intermingled. Shortly speaking, how much "it is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong" (J. M. Keyness). All the other papers in the Section illustrate those problems in various but very obvious ways. The topics of the papers could be assigned under the headlines that follow. The seminar accompanying the anniversary of ITB, entitled "The Strategy of Construction Research Institutes", presented a compendium of knowledge and strategy of building institutes that co-shape the European construction space. The regulations of ITB stated that the Building Research Institute was established to conduct comprehensive research in order to improve and increase production of construction and road materials, as well as to improve construction technology using all scientific advances. Of course, to create trends in the discipline development is not the task or mission of ITB only.
Risk of performance evaluationIn this context, the word "ongoing" in the Section title has been treated both literally and figuratively. All current waiting papers from the editorial civil engineering portfolio have been included into the Special Section. The papers which are presently in the editorial process will be published in the Special Section Part II. In such case we have not only obtained a cross-section of the present publishing activity, but also the characteristic picture of the civil engineering in a flash. Although very randomly created, this picture is a surprisingly comprehensive one.Civil engineering as a discipline of applied science is always seeking for its place on the map of knowledge. Each of the papers included in this Special Section consists of two components: science and engineering balanced in various ways. One of the dilemmas of the civil engineering is the following contro- (W. Węgrzyński, P. Sulik) [8] illustrate a dynamically developing sub-discipline -fire safety engineering. How fire safety requirements shape the development of civil engineering has been considered and documented. The frost resistance is one of the basic attributes of concrete durability. This problem is discussed by J. Wawrzeńczyk et al. [9], focusing on the concrete with granulated blast furnace slag. The subjec...