China has always been the title of infrastructure madman. The bridge we built has made the world amazed. In the ranking of the world's highest bridges alone, China accounts for seven of the ten places! Not to mention the bridges with the longest lifespan and the bridges with the largest span.
The achievements made in China's infrastructure today have come step by step, and are considered a rising star in the world. At present, we are at the forefront of the world. Looking back at the infrastructure strength of other countries, we will know the gap between foreign countries and us.
Today we will review what speechless bridge accidents are happening abroad in terms of bridge construction.
India Birhar Bridge
If you want to say that China's first infrastructure construction country is not convinced, it is probably not the United States or Japan, but India.
Since China successfully held the Olympic Games in 2008, India, which always likes to compare with China, has become sour. They feel that as Asia's "number one power" can't lag behind China in infrastructure.
So, the Chief Minister of India began to look for construction teams in India, preparing to build a bridge for Birhar that benefit the people. Indian netizens who heard this news also said, "Isn't it just a bird's nest? Look at our India and build a bridge that the whole world admires!"
As the Indian national sentiment rose, the Indian engineers and construction teams frowned. Because Birhar is a place that has been raining heavily for years and floods often occur, the land there has been extremely loose, and construction companies in India have expressed their powerlessness.
But in the view of the Chief Minister of India, that is that there is not enough money and the construction company does not want to do it. So the price of building bridges on this project soared to Rs 2.6 billion! In the end, driven by interests, an inconspicuous small company in India took over the project and prepared to make a big profit!
It is precisely because of small companies that lack technical capabilities and have to take on this job. The Birharbon Bridge, which was originally scheduled to be completed in 2016, has been dragged again and again until 2020. From the first day of construction, it has been built for 8 years!
On the day of the completion of the Birharan Bridge, which had repeatedly quit tickets, the Indian Chief Minister personally visited the scene to cut the ribbon for the opening of the bridge. Indian netizens also called this bridge "the pride of India" and "the proof beyond China".
Not to mention whether this mere 1140-meter-long bridge can surpass China, just take the lifespan of this bridge as a very ridiculous thing.
The 29th day after the bridge was opened to traffic, it was washed away by the flood after days of heavy rain. As soon as the news came out, the people immediately alarmed the melon-eating people, and they all felt "laughed" for the death of this bridge in India.
Indian chief minister did not believe that the bridge he valued so much had collapsed in just 29 days, so he began to doubt whether China was jealous of them and sent spies to sabotage. In order to prove that it was not the problem of his engineering team, but the Chinese were sabotaging the destruction, the Chief Minister sent someone to investigate the "murderer". After checking the results, I found out that my engineering team cut corners during construction, and a lot of construction funds flowed to their pockets. The small engineering team, which was not skilled, and cut corners, eventually could not withstand the heavy rain for a month and collapsed.
For the sake of face, the Chief Minister of India claimed that it was not a technical problem, nor did he say that some people embezzled and misappropriated low-quality steel. Instead, it was said that a "rat" dug a hole in the bridge pier, and the flood was too big and destroyed the bridge.
Of course, no one will believe this excuse, and even the locals do not believe it. But Indian officials no longer responded to this matter, and Indian people could only watch the tax they paid were washed away by the flood.
Tacoma Strait Suspension Bridge in the United States
Although we have expected India's operations, after all, they are inexperienced and have serious corruption, and their technology is backward. But as a developed country, the United States also made serious mistakes, and even the bridge collapsed after only four months of survival.
On July 1, 1940, a bridge called the Tacoma Strait Suspension Bridge was opened to traffic in Washington State, USA. The locals were very happy because they no longer had to go around dozens of kilometers to the opposite side.
Perhaps it was their panicked hearts that were covered by the joy. Even the bridge was shaking in the breeze, they were not afraid, and even called the bridge "Dance Gotty".
A few months later, local residents finally realized something was wrong because the swaying of the bridge was too big. It was just a slight shaking at the beginning, but as time went by, the bridge could really be described as dancing, and even people could not stand on it.
But at that time the US government was still thinking about how to make money in war, and how could we have the mood to manage the "small things" in China. So four months after opening to traffic, the bridge collapsed due to strong winds. At this time, the US government also realized the seriousness of the problem and began to send a team of experts to investigate.
After investigation, the engineers of the Tacoma Bridge "minimize budget" at the request of the engineering team. For money, the amount of steel in the originally designed engineering drawings was reduced by one tenth.
Because the reduction of steel lacks stability, the bridge begins to shake under the boost of the storm. Just like a person is pulling teeth, the teeth are just slightly loose at the beginning. The more you shake it, the looser it becomes, the greater the shaking. The bridge tray of the Tacoma Bridge is shaking and looser as it keeps shaking, and the amplitude becomes bigger and bigger, and it collapses like a tooth.
Afterwards, the local U.S. government protected the bridge that collapsed into the river to warn of the subsequent projects. This is how Americans can build bridges for their own homes. How good is it to build bridges for other countries?
Quebec Bridge, Canada
Quebec Bridge, Canada, has maintained the record of the longest cantilever bridge in the world so far. But before it was completed, the bridge had two accidents.
was originally built by Teodoro Kupa, the most famous American engineer at the time, who also served as an engineer in several buildings. Both the engineer experience and the Canadian engineering team are much better than India, and everyone thinks that the bridge is so stable.
But this is not the case. Because the engineer is too arrogant and often arbitrary, he thinks that his theory is right. And he is a competitive person and likes to compete with others.
The competitive engineer Kupa privately increased the length of Quebec Bridge in order to create the longest bridge in the world. The Quebike Bridge, which was originally 500 meters long, became 600 meters long under his operation, and directly became the longest bridge in the world at that time.
The Quebec Bridge was built day by day under the gaze of this famous engineer and slowly arrived at the final stage. Everyone in the engineering team was ready to open champagne to celebrate the ribbon cutting, the sling at the southern end of the bridge suddenly broke. In just over a dozen seconds, 19,000 tons of steel, together with 86 workers who were working on the bridge, fell into the river, and only 11 people were rescued.
This incident alarmed the entire engineering community as soon as it happened. It was not only a surprise to this incident, but also a pity for the lives lost by workers.
Before the accident, no one would think that the best engineers in the United States would have problems, and even after the accident, not many people thought it was an engineer's problem. But with the investigation by the Canadian government, the truth is what they least believe.
Because engineer Teodoro Kupa was too obsessed with the title of world number one, he arbitrarily increased the length of the bridge. It is precisely because of this that the load of the steel cable exceeded the originally imagined range and eventually broke down and caused an accident.
This is like the principle of leverage. When holding the other end of the stick, the longer the stick becomes, the heavier it becomes. The most outstanding engineer in the United States at that time neglected the simplest truth and caused the accident. The bridge construction company also has its responsibilities. After all, they trust authoritative people too much and cooperate with them to lengthen the bridge length.
No one would have thought that this famous engineer would make such a low-level mistake. In the end, the Canadian government finally decided to remove the engineer from his position and take over it himself.
But the Canadian government still overestimated its strength, and the tragedy happened again not long after.
When the construction team was setting up a cantilever to fish out the bridge that had fallen into the river before, the support of a cantilever suddenly broke, causing the entire middle section of the bridge to fall into the river again. Not only that, 13 workers on site died unfortunately.
After these two tragedies, the Quebec Bridge in Canada was finally opened to traffic. The bridge, which sacrificed a total of 99 workers' lives, also maintains the title of the bridge with the largest number of deaths before completion.
Interestingly, the Canadian Institute of Engineering jointly invested to acquire the steel that fell into the river at that time. Whenever a student graduates from college, they will use these steel to make a ring for graduates, hoping that they will learn from it.
The Bay Bridge of the United States
The Bay Bridge of the United States in San Francisco, USA may have heard of it. Even if you haven’t heard of it, you may have seen this bridge more or less in the movie. This bridge, which was built as early as 1936, is the longest span of cross-sea bridge so far. But the bridge has experienced many accidents, and the most serious of them almost killed the bridge.
1968, an intern plane in the United States hit the bridge, causing serious damage to the eastern section of the bridge. Not long after the bridge was repaired, another magnitude 6.9 earthquake occurred in the San Francisco area. The 15-meter-long section of the road was directly broken and fell into the sea, and the entire bridge was almost scrapped due to the earthquake.
The American construction team quickly repaired it, but it was like a cracked stone, and it would not work with a simple repair method. As a result, not long after the repair was completed, the bridge where hundreds of thousands of cars were driving on it cracked again every day.
Domestic construction companies and engineering teams in the United States have expressed their powerlessness, so the United States has to turn its attention to the world and bid for global bids for US$50 billion. Other countries rushed to join in the fun after hearing this, but they all said they were powerless and only China dared to contract.
But the United States and China are not very good friends, so they initially wanted to let Japan take over. As a result, the Japanese construction company said that the bridge must be blown up before it can be rebuilt.
If the United States can do it by itself, it will not be Japan's turn to worry about it. The bridge passes through hundreds of thousands of cars every day, and it is impossible to accept the proposal for reconstruction because it has been too long. In the end, the United States gave the repair of the bridge to Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry in China.
Then Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry completed the task beyond the standard. Even Americans praised China as the title of infrastructure madman, but this bridge has since been nicknamed "Made in China".
Conclusion
Our motherland is very strong, and the world's first infrastructure is understandable. While the world laments our construction level, we must also learn from foreign lessons. The Bill Harbor Bridge in India, the Coma Strait suspension bridge in the United States, and the Quebec Bridge in Canada, life and property are passing away behind every bridge accident. Taking it as a warning to take its essence is the main reason for China's infrastructure strength.
