humans have always been driven towards building bigger grander taller and more massive things
you can see this everywhere you look from the pyramids in egypt to the burj khalifa and the
united arab emirates these enormous structures are testaments not only to the ambition of mankind
but to their amazing engineering abilities the only issue is that the bigger taller or
wider you build something the more prone to accidents the entire project becomes
especially as the structure ages and becomes worn by the elements what would it look like
if a part of the burj khalifa randomly gave way how many lives would be lost what is
the lifespan of something like the golden gate bridge which is nearly 100 years old there are
even examples of how human ambition proved to be too great enormous buildings or even entire cities
have sat vacant for years when structures such as these fail or are abandoned the cost is enormous
both financially and in terms of lives lost from massive engineering miscalculations
to brand new buildings tipping over here are five construction mistakes that cost millions
interstate 35 in minneapolis minnesota is a very busy thoroughfare one section of the highway was
built over the mississippi river at the saint anthony falls this bridge opened in 1967 and
at its busiest time carried 140 000 vehicles per day in terms of size it was rather large
measuring 1907 feet across and clearing the river below by 81 feet over the years though the tens
of millions of cars that used it each year started taking its toll on august 1 2007 at 6 05 pm it was
rush hour on the bridge and traffic was moving slowly suddenly the central span of the bridge
gave way followed shortly after by the adjoining spans both the structure and the deck of the
central span fell 81 feet into the river below the northern sections fell into a rail yard landing on
three freight cars in total 111 vehicles were involved although only a few of the vehicles
were actually submerged a total of 13 people lost their lives as a result of the collapse
a subsequent investigation was conducted by investigators from the minneapolis dot
and the national transportation safety board the fbi even sent a team of investigators to
give assistance to local authorities after months of investigations and recovery the ntsb announced
that the bridge's design specified steel gusset plates that were undersized and unable to support
the intended load of the bridge over the years that load had increased and caused a gradual
degradation of the plates eventually they gave out under the weight resulting in a total collapse
between construction of the new bridge and the settlements from the ensuing lawsuits the overall
cost was around 286 million dollars new york city is full of tall buildings and skyscrapers
one of these buildings the city corp tower has a particularly unique story sitting at 59 stories it
held the title for the seventh tallest building in the world when it was finished in 1977.
it wasn't hard to identify in the city thanks to its 45 degree angled top however it's the base of
the building that is the most unique because the bottom nine stories of the building are stilts it
was built in this way to accommodate saint peter's lutheran church which occupies one corner of the
building's site at 53rd street and lexington avenue it was a condition of the building's
construction that the corner not be touched so the stilts were the answer to this condition however
this made for a big problem even though certain features were built into the building's design to
make it sturdy it was in fact very light in 1978 an undergraduate architecture student contacted
the designer with a bold claim about the building it could blow over in the wind as she was studying
the building and its unique stilt design she found that it was particularly vulnerable to quartering
winds normally these are the strongest parts of the building but because of the stilts it turns
out that the corners were the weakest part of the citycorp tower the designer checked the figures
and found that the student was correct a storm with significant winds would be able to blow the
building over if the winds hit it from the corners as a matter of fact the math ended up working
out like this for every year the building stood there was a 1 in 16 chance that it would collapse
work was done in secret and very quickly to make the building secure when workers were gone
at night the construction crews would come into work news of this story didn't break until 1995.
although the cost of reinforcing construction was in the millions the cost of a collapse could have
been in the hundreds of millions for as big as the country of china is there are instances where new
development is plagued by shoddy work on top of that there is very little oversight when it
comes to quality and safety these elements are the perfect storm for an engineering disaster
well on june 27 2009 that's exactly what happened in a suburban area of hong kong
construction crews had been building a 13-story residential building it was one of dozens in that
area of the city sometime around 6 am the building gave way and fell on its side staying nearly
completely intact on its trip down one worker lost their life in the incident the cause of this
failure can be attributed to many factors but the most prominent is the ground on which the building
was built prior to the collapse excavation occurred on one side of the building this along
with other factors caused the soft clay to weaken and allowed for the pile foundation to slide
ultimately resulting in the collapse the chinese government has never been very forthcoming with
information concerning its failures but there is no denying that this disaster was a direct result
of the very lax standards by which the chinese government operates as is typical in many other
parts of the country the construction was done very quickly using materials that were sub-par at
best the population of the country is booming and expansion has been very rapid while this method
of fast construction is efficient it doesn't always make the cut as far as safety is concerned
standing at 62 stories tall on clarendon street in boston massachusetts is the john hancock tower
designed by henry cobb it was completed in 1976. it was the tallest building in all of new england
from the onset it was obvious that it would be an amazing structure showcasing beauty
through its minimalist appearance a simple parallelogram design adorned with large panes
of glass really brought a modernist flare to the city another thing that was evident
from the onset was that there were some big engineering flaws especially with the windows
the building was covered in over ten thousand window panes that were four by eleven feet
and five hundred pounds each in times when wind would blow over 45 miles per hour the paynes
would become detached and crash onto the sidewalk hundreds of feet below when winds picked up police
would have to close off the surrounding streets in order to protect vehicles and pedestrians
it was found that much like the citicorp tower this building was very light and moved in the
wind not only would it sway but it would also twist to add to everything else there
were thermal stresses that caused the air between the inner and outer glass to expand and contract
stressing the bonding between them there was a time that so many panes fell and were patched with
plywood the building was nicknamed plywood palace or plywood ranch not only were all of the panes of
glass replaced two 300 ton weights were installed at opposite ends of the building stabilizing it
during high winds the total cost was around 10 million dollars however the potential disaster
was not known until the construction was nearly complete studies showed that the entire building
could have blown over if it weren't for the added weights and structural reinforcements
once again we find ourselves in china where rapid population growth required a lot of new
construction in 2005 in the city of dongguan the south china mall was built in terms of total area
it was the second largest mall in the world next to the dubai mall but in terms of gross
leasable area it was the largest builders of this mall forgot the golden rule that even we
regular people know about location location location the south china mall was built to
be more of an affluent place to shop the problem is that the city of dongguan is mostly farmland
and the vast majority of the residents there are lower income laborers who did not respond at all
to the attractions that the mall had to offer now because of the low interest over 95 percent
of the stores are vacant the only places that are occupied are near the entrances where most of them
are western fast food chains there's even one area of the mall where four full floors are
empty once again we see an overly ambitious task that was not properly thought out by the owner
grandeur and flair won out over practicality and now the financial price is being paid
since the opening it is estimated that the mall has lost well over a billion dollars in utilities
and rent we are capable of building some amazing structures but whether through miscalculation or
not keeping a proper attention to detail we are also capable of some very costly mistakes
hopefully as we strive to build bigger and taller we keep our ambitious nature in check
and focus more on the safety and practicality of the projects if you enjoyed this video then
be sure to click the link on screen to check out cruise ship accidents that cost millions trust
me you won't want to miss it as always thanks for watching and be sure to tune in next time