15 Epic Construction Fails

while we may marvel at new building projects in our cities what's not so marvelous is when they end up falling down bad planning low quality materials and shoddy workmanship have led to everything from bridges to skyscrapers tumbling down today we're taking a look at 15 epic construction fails number 15 the second narrows bridge it is rare for there to be just one factor that leads to the failure of a construction project this was certainly the case with the second narrows bridge that's because on june 17th of 1958 a number of structural issues worked against the

bridge at once to cause it to crash into the burrard inlet below now the accident itself began with a crane being used to join two sections of the bridge malfunctioned causing numerous parts of the bridge to collapse yet after an inspection was done it turned out that the cause of the bridge's collapse were multi-faceted with the reasoning being that not only due to the poor quality of materials used and shoddy engineering practices of those involved but also because of the temporary arm that was holding the fifth anchor span was too light to bear its weight

as a result 18 workers lost their lives and the bridge was later renamed the ironworkers memorial second narrows crossing in 1994. in order to honor their memory number 14 the cologne city archive collapse when building structures in a city construction workers have to be especially careful as often times their actions can have negative consequences on the buildings standing around them while they're usually pretty careful in 2009 the building of a metro line beneath the city of cologne germany caused the entirety of the cologne city archives building to collapse leading to two deaths and damages of

more than one billion euros upon further inspection it turned out that one of the underground diaphragm walls of the subway station had caused so much water sand and gravel to flow beneath the archive building that it eventually caused its foundations to crumble and wash away as such thousands of precious documents were lost making it one of the worst cases of construction-related negligence in the city's history 13 the boston scaffold failure while most construction mistakes become apparent during or after an accident what many are not aware of is the fact that major errors can occur while

a construction site is being taken down such was the case at boston's emerson college in april of 2006 that's because while workers were taking down the scaffolding that they had placed on a dormitory they chose to disconnect the final metal tie securing a three-ton platform to the side of the building without first attaching the scaffold to a crane this resulted in the scaffold platform precariously dangling on a mass located 30 meters in the air because it had a weather proofing tarp on it the wind caught onto it and made it crash into the street below

this ultimately led to three people being crushed by the platform making it one of the worst construction takedown attempts to date number 12 the charring cross subway collapse typically speaking building maintenance is meant to make a structure in tip-top shape and at times it can do the exact opposite and such was the case in the charring cross subway collapse occurring on december 16th of 1905 the incident occurred thanks to a 20 meter long steel beam collapsing onto the platform below ultimately causing most of the iron and glass roof to collapse this led to many of

the wooden box cars of the subway train being smashed with a total of six people passing away and 27 becoming injured in the disaster upon inspection it turned out that the weight of the construction materials had caused the scaffolding to collapse therefore leading to a chain reaction that caused the entire station roof to fall as such had the workers been a little more careful the disaster likely could have been avoided altogether number 11 the lahormultan railway generally speaking construction projects tend to build things up but in the case of the lahore multan railway it effectively

tore things down that's because harappa which is the archaeological site in punjab pakistan was severely damaged in order to provide material for the railway for context harappa is the site of an ancient city that existed between the years 2600 and 1900 bc and as such is extremely valuable to archaeologists however when the british came and built the lahore multan railway they got to work dismantling it they used many of the bricks from the ruins in order to make the track ballast as a result while harappa is still an interesting place to visit today the ancient

city is much less intact than it was just a few hundred years ago number 10 lotus riverside when building an apartment location is everything after all not only is it important to place it where the housing demand is high but it's also crucial to ensure that the ground level below it is sturdy however the planners of block 7 and the lotus riverside apartment complex in shanghai china obviously never got this memo this is because while the construction faced no major problems at first issues began to arise when the builders of the block decided to dig

out a four and a half meter deep underground parking garage for the complex this created a large pile of dirt yet rather than move it to a secure location it was brought to a landfill that was besides a nearby creek the weight of this dirt then caused the riverbank of the creek to collapse as a result water began to seep into the ground beneath block seven this made the dirt surrounding the apartment very wet and they should have caused the company to pause construction yet they continued on and as a result the muddy ground was

not stable enough to hold the apartment block's weight in place as a result on june 27th of 2009 the entire building came tumbling down trapping and killing one unfortunate worker who was left inside number nine the new york crane disaster while cranes may be pretty scary to operate what's even more scary is when they malfunction and crash into the street below if that's exactly what happened when on march 15th of 2008 a crane that measured in at about 76 meters high collapsed now at the time of the accident the construction workers were busy tying lateral

beams to both the crane and the 18th floor in order to give it more structural support at this time around they did so without the use of a mobile crane which was something they had never done before this was compounded by the fact that the slings they used were not only made of polyester which is a very weak material for this purpose but also not protected against sharp edges it was these factors that caused the crane to ultimately collapse and led to the passing of a total of seven people yet what's perhaps most surprising is

that william repeti who was the crane rigger in charge of stabilizing the crane was never convicted of any charges you see he was charged with 14 counts of manslaughter due to him admitting having not inspected the slings used in attaching the crane many thought that he would surely be found guilty due to his negligence however this did not end up being the case as he was eventually cleared of all charges number eight the greater nueda building collapse while cutting corners can often cause problems in the construction of a new building few contractors have been quite

as cheap as those who built the greater nowita apartment building in india that's because despite being said to be a large apartment building the decision was made to use woefully insufficient materials in order to create the structure in particular it was found that the ratio of cement to sand while preparing construction material was not one to five as is normal for a building of this size but as much as one to twenty all the iron beams used to support the structure were not the recommended thickness of 22 to 25 millimeters but instead just 10 to

12 millimeters when compounded with the fact that water had accumulated in the basement of the building and had made the base much weaker it shouldn't come as a surprise that it was only a matter of time before it came crashing down however with a total of at least nine people dying in the collapse it was easily one of the worst construction disasters that the region has ever experienced number seven the malpasseth dam when it comes to creating a dam location is critical as the massive amounts of water and concrete involved can cause major issues if

placed in an unideal spot and while geological surveys usually ensure that these types of mistakes are minimal the designers of the malpassa dam learned this the hard way when on december 2nd of 1959 the entire structure collapsed leading to a massive flood that took the lives of 423 people now the dam which was located on the rayrin river in the french riviera was built back in 1954 and at that time the area was deemed suitable for its construction however what the builders failed to realize was that the area was located underneath a tectonic plate and

thus when they began to use explosives to aid in the construction they severely damaged the already unstable rock to make matters worse they built on top of a nearly impermeable rock known as nice and this was problematic because it caused the diagonally flowing water to become trapped underneath the dam thus further adding to its instability as such cracks began to form years before the collapse due to the government neglecting to do anything about it the dam remains standing until its disastrous end number six the akura hotel collapse building regulations and oversight are an important factor

in ensuring that construction failures don't happen yet in many of the world's poorest countries the regulations simply aren't enforced a perfect example of this is the akura hotel collapse in a crew in nigeria that's because in january of 2011 a hotel that was supposed to be many stories high ultimately collapsed due to a number of shoddy construction practices in particular it seems that the cement used in the construction was very poor with the mix not being evenly distributed throughout the building this was compounded by the fact that the steel reinforcement bars were too thin thus

making them too weak to hold up the weight of the materials being used yet perhaps worst of all the planners of the building had never gone to architectural school thus leading to the building's poor design therefore had regulations been properly followed this entire disaster could have been avoided however because they were not the entire building was destroyed number five the quebec bridge generally speaking people learn from their mistakes yet the quebec bridge was a clear example of how this sometimes isn't the case this was because the quebec bridge is infamous for not only collapsing once

but twice due to faulty design and construction techniques a preliminary work on the bridge first began in 1887 when plans were made to connect quebec city with the town of levis using a structure that ran over the saint lawrence river yet by 1907 it was clear that the calculations made in the planning stages were never properly checked as the bridge was in fact too heavy to support its own weight while the engineering team on site could see that the bridge had some serious distortions they were unfortunately still in the process of approving a pause in

construction when disaster struck that's because on august 29th of 1907 the entire south arm and part of the central section of the bridge collapsed killing 75 workers and injuring 11 others after this incident a commission was made to investigate the accident although all of those who were deemed guilty of causing the disaster through their faulty calculations were ultimately let off the hook as such construction of a new bridge under a new set of engineers began yet on september 11th of 1916 the hoisting devices used to lift up the central part of the bridge broke causing

the central part of the bridge to fall into the water which led to the death of a further 13 workers once again no one was charged with any sort of misconduct thankfully despite the bridge having already collapsed twice it seems like the third time was a charm that's because in spite of further concerns construction resumed almost immediately after the second accident and after a lot more resources were poured into the project the quebec bridge was finally completed in august of 1919. number four the willow island disaster while the united states has been the home of

many construction disasters the willow island disaster is thought to be one of the worst of them all occurring on april 27 of 1978 it involved the collapse of a cooling tower under construction at the pleasant's power station on willow island west virginia now at the time of the accident one of its towers had reached a height of 51 meters when a cable hoisting a bucket of concrete went slack this caused the crane that was pulling it up to fall into the tower leading to the previous day's concrete beginning to unravel this began a cycle where

concrete began to peel off from the tower at a rapid rate and it wasn't long until a jumble of concrete wooden forms and metal scaffolding fell into the hollow center of the tower this ultimately led to the deaths of 51 construction workers that were working on the tower an inquiry into the accident was soon held after and it appeared that there were three primary causes the first was that the crane itself had been modified without undergoing proper review leading to it collapsing when it began to lift weight this was compounded by the fact that in

order to save time and money workers poured concrete into the tower mold every single day which was problematic because concrete takes more than one day to set as a result the concrete was not strong enough to resist the weight of the crane once it was hit to top this off there was only one access ladder on site thus making it near impossible for the workers to escape once it was clear that there was a problem thus the end result of all this negligence was that the victims families were compensated with about seventeen hundred dollars each

or about sixty seven hundred dollars in 2020 money by the contracting firm with the firm itself not having any criminal charges laid against it number three the gleno dam dams tend to be pretty expensive construction projects as the designs and materials used to build them have to be top-notch in order to avoid disaster yet it seems that the builders of the glenn mode dam never got the memo that's just 40 days after its construction the entire structure collapsed leading to the deaths of at least 356 people from nearby villages due to the ensuing flood upon

investigation it was clear that the collapse of the dam could be blamed almost exclusively on the negligence of the construction workers and designers perhaps the most glaring error was the fact that they had used substandard cement mortar which was made worse by the fact that it never properly set before the reservoir was filled thus causing it to become wet and damaged they also made the poor choice to reinforce the cement not with new materials but with anti-grenade netting that had been left over from world war one which was by all accounts unsuitable for the job

and perhaps the most disastrous error of them all was that the dam's design was completely changed halfway through construction that's because while the glenmode dam was originally meant to be a gravity dam a lack of funding meant that after the gravity dam foundations were built the plans were changed so that instead became a multiple archdam this caused the two sections of the dam to be poorly joined together and due to the already inferior design of the multiple arched dam this just made the whole project a lot worse as such its collapse could have easily been

avoided had no corners been cut yet due to the fact of any workers that complained about the dam's deficiencies were fired all the warning signs were simply ignored number two the thane building collapse while most of the buildings on this list had full approval from the government before construction began the thane building collapse in thane india stands apart for being a completely illegal structure it's because despite the plan for it to be a relatively large apartment building the planners never submitted a blueprint to the government office and as such didn't have the occupancy permit for

the 100 to 150 residents living inside the building this was especially problematic because the architect involved had actually never gone to architecture school and thus was completely unqualified to design the structure and this is then added to the fact that the building had followed virtually no safety protocols and had used poor quality materials it becomes clear that the collapse which occurred on april 4th of 2013 and resulted in the deaths of 74 people could have easily been avoided yet what's interesting about this case is that it's not one of a kind in the area that's

because shoddy construction and illegal buildings are the norm in the city of fame thanks to the fact that there's a severe lack of housing to meet the ever-growing demand as a result it's estimated that there are about 500 000 illegal buildings within the thane district with many of these not being built to a very high standard therefore the fact of the matter is that until this illegal housing problem is dealt with we will likely see accidents that are similar to this one continue to occur number one the hawke's nest tunnel although most of the projects

on this list collapsed or malfunctioned either during or after construction the hawks nest tunnel is an exception to this rule after all the tunnel which is located near gauley bridge west virginia was built as part of a successful hydroelectric project and as such it is still in use today however what's not so successful was the choice of location for this tunnel you see during its construction workers found the mineral silica which is known to cause severe lung problems and those who breathe it yet in spite of this they were asked to mine it so it

could be sold for use in steel processing and since the year was 1930 and the us was in the grips of the great depression the workers who primarily consisted of poor african-american laborers from the south could not refuse as such they continuously work 10 to 15 hour shifts where they would use drills and dynamite to mine the silica contaminated sandstone with these workers not being given any masks or breathing equipment to use while mining thus when the work was done many workers developed silicosis which is the debilitating lung disease caused by the effects of silica

dust in the lungs this caused as many as one thousand of the three thousand workers to die as a direct result with the totals perhaps being even higher thus this project while successful is largely considered to be one of the largest construction disasters in american history and ultimately led to new legislation being passed in order to ensure that such an incident would never occur again our binge watching playlist if you'd like to watch all of our most popular top 15 videos grab a drink grab a snack and get ready to binge you