"... with panoramic views. The bridge has facilities for extreme sports such as bungee jumping and paragliding integrated by design..."
From the Wikipedia article for the Huajiang Canyon Bridge, the world's highest bridge, which just opened last August.
I remember the hoopla. Blogged it here. I remember a commenter saying the height is not impressive because it's measured from the bottom of a deep gorge.
I'm reading about the Huajiang Canyon Bridge today because — as Reuters reports — the a bridge has collapsed. Spectacular video:
CORRECTION: The bridge that collapsed was the Hongqi Bridge, which had no Wikipedia page. When searched for, the other bridge, Huajiang Canyon Bridge, showed up in the search. Sorry for assuming these were the same bridge!
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87 comments:
Quite the black eye for China. Unfortunately they have had them before. I have seen pictures of rows of apartment buildings, that had been improperly excavated, toppling into each other like dominos. Just bad quality control.
Or not.
when will Three Gorges fail? The ultimate Ghoul Pool.
The next thing you know, the Chinese will spike baby formula with dangerous chemicals so they can pass safety tests. Babies will die.
Then they'll tear down the Great Wall so their trucks don't have to pay taxes.
Then they'll sell a bunch of patent-and-design-stealing copy-cat items on Ebay and Amazon that are pure junk.
Not news.
Back in the day there was a meme circulating that showed a new "building in Japan" collapse because of its poor foundation. That building was actually Chinese, and the Japanese were not amused. Japanese buildings are just fine.
At least they knew it was coming and closed it. Unlike New York state (under Governor Mario Cuomo) when a bridge on the NYS thruway collapsed and killed 10 people. Ironically, Mario now has a bridge named after him, courtesy his son Andrew.
I don't understand. The bridge in the Wikipedia article is a suspension bridge, while the bridge in the collapse video is not.
If I had to hazard a guess, I would suppose that the Chinese are very good at industrial espionage, when it comes to stealing engineering design and technical science, but not so good at geotechnical espionage. A construction project like this would normally have years of geological and environmental investigation preceding project sanction. Embarking on a project of this ambition level, while not bothering to understand the geology of a place with this kind of relief? Didn't they just build a few huge dam systems? Hmmmm.
The roadway was blocked, so at least they took heed of signs that the bridge was failing. We've had a number of high profile bridge collapses where trained engineers saw the clear warning signs, yet did not take action to protect the public.
The I-35W bridge in Minneapolis and that pedestrian bridge in Miami come to mind.
The mountain collapsed and took down one end of the bridge which is obviously not the same one blogged about.
Are those the same bridge? Huajiang Canyon Bridge and Hongqi Bridge?
What is a charmadillo?
Well, yes, but I haven't heard yet how it's Trump's fault. I guess I need to wait for it to be reported in the NYT and then read the comments section.
Not an engineer - or even a reliable narrator - but I *think* this is the Hongqi Bridge, not the Huajiang Canyon Bridge.
https://www.highestbridges.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hongqi_Bridge
"Didn't they just build a few huge dam systems?"
Those dams are huge sitting targets if they ever attempt to invade Taiwan.
According to Reuters it was the Hongqi that collapsed.
@Aggie: Embarking on a project of this ambition level, while not bothering to understand the geology of a place with this kind of relief? Didn't they just build a few huge dam systems?
The Chinese are absolutely smart enough to do good research and build good systems. But, one party rule = endemic corruption = routine bribes to cut corners, not spend, and pocket the difference.
Corruption affects many Chinese projects, and dooms literally every infrastructure project in sub-Saharan Africa.
In other news; a Chinese consul in Japan has threatened to behead Japanese PM Takaichi.
China having one bang up day today!
Ewps…
Not an engineer - or even a reliable narrator - but I *think* this is the Hongqi Bridge, not the Huajiang Canyon Bridge
…to westerners all Chinese bridges look alike…
As mentioned by others this was not the “tallest” bridge but a long one. Not a suspension bridge but one on a single row of minimalist tall piers. It appears that the area including the foundations are in a geotechnically unstable zone and I’m guessing that a pier foundation shifted. In addition to studying concrete structures you also need to study geological engineering.
Poor China, so “advanced” yet so unlucky. Not a safety first kind of place.
According to the video's captions, this is the Honky Bridge. So much for white supremacy.
I'm going to think of this every time I see a Honky armadillo.
Did they study both sides to see if they were moving with or in opposite direction? That gorge gives fault line vibes. In a rush to build, did they skip the studies?
Wuhan Ministry of Bridge Design
I looked at the bridge Althouse linked to from Wikipedia.
Rh🤣
rh @ 12:54 for the win.
Did they skip the studies. They build and they build a lot. I prefer that attitude to the one overtaking Malibu and the Palisades area.
"Wuhan Ministry of Bridge Design"
Please don't let it be that we funded it.
Made in China. What'd you expect?
[Meh] The collapse of the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge was more spectacular.
Sometimes a bridge collapse is the only way to get rid of a Balrog.
The lesson: Don't buy from Temu.
It's so funny. I can remember exclaiming to my wife at some point when we were looking at an article about that bridge a long time ago- before its collapse- that I would not trust it. Chinese engineering still does not have my full confidence. Not the materials they may choose to use, not the State 'approval standards'.
But I confess. I have a bias. I can remember watching a video or two about Chinese construction falling down in China's earlier 'capitalist' boom years.
And importantly, when I was working, I was on the supply side of the hospitality industry. I represented a couple of very high quality, high design furniture companies. Both of whom originally did all of their furniture manufacturing in Indonesia. Both companies had high standards and both did a lot of custom work- high design work- for upscale resorts, hotels, restaurants, etc.
And, at some point, to save costs, both companies thought they could just move their design and production needs over to China and it would be smooth sailing.
I feel like I spent the last 10 years of my career training Chinese factories to raise their standards, to follow our standards and our instructions.
The difference in what was promised and contracted for between Indonesia and China was literally night and day. In quality of work, keeping to standards, and quality of materials. The Indonesia factories did magnificent work, were always on top of details, and kept to our standards. They were expensive, but the work was great. Chinese factories would say one thing, deliver another. It cost less, but not after you lost business and reputation. I lost more than one customer over that period, blew more than one project during those awful transition periods from Indonesia to China, then back to Indonesia.
And even though the entire industry has now spent about 15-20 years training Chinese factories to get it right, and many of them have, I still view the majority of furniture coming out of China as crap.
And so, no- I was not surprised at the bridge collapsing. My only surprise is that more of their skyscrapers haven't also done so.
Amazing landslide. Did the bridge builders do something to cause the landslide, or should the bridge never have been built because of the likelihhod of a landslide? I don't think any bridge withstands that landslide.
Our Sydney cab driver told us of Australian construction projects that had run into trouble due to shoddy Chinese materials. But they were cheap!
In addition to the others mentioned, I also remember someone killed in the then relatively new "Big Dig" $14 billion tunnel in Boston. Tons of concrete fell on a car.
Hongqi Bridge is not the same as Huajiang Canyon Bridge
.
In addition to the others mentioned, I also remember someone killed in the then relatively new "Big Dig" $14 billion tunnel in Boston. Tons of concrete fell on a car.
As I recall, there was a similar chunk of concrete falling on a car on the much older Tobin Bridge, also in Boston, which was undergoing repairs.
Sometimes a bridge collapse is the only way to get rid of a Balrog.
Seemed like a good way to get rid of a wizard as well, but we know how that worked out.
I will never buy stock in a Chinese company. I don't trust their numbers.
I ran into a guy at the bar at the Casa del Mar in Santa Monica when I was pitching my "Frankenstein, Part II." He was from China. He spoke perfect English. No accent.
I asked him about the Chinese government. He said things will never change as most people just want to make money and go on vacations.
We, in the United States, are very different than the Chinese.
Some Chinese engineer forgot to carry the one,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFSFfk8gODM
Casa del Mar. The place to stay when yer in LA.
So now, whenever I see something bad happening, I will say to myself, “Oh ho! Charmadillo, charmadillo.” Sweet!
If you think China is bad, try Russia.
Boston is very efficient at industrial accidents. Before the Big Dig they killed people with windows falling out of the John Hancock Tower
In China even the mountains are made of tofu dregs.
China is a huuuuge country. The "China in Ruins" headline is a bit hysterical.
Per the correction: quite understandable. When it comes to bridges, they all look alike.
gspencer said...
Some Chinese engineer forgot to carry the one,
Instead of using a proper Chinese abacus he used a cheap, US-built imitation.
CORRECTION: The bridge that collapsed was the Hongqi Bridge, which had no Wikipedia page. When searched for, the other bridge, Huajiang Canyon Bridge, showed up in the search. Sorry for assuming these were the same bridge!
@Althouse, so I guess all Chinese [bridges] look alike to you.
Charmadillo apparently means a potentially catastrophic event that results in no human tragedy. Last year’s charmadillo was the choice of Kamala Harris as a Presidential candidate. This year’s charmadillo is this bridge collapse.
Boston is very efficient at industrial accidents. Before the Big Dig they killed people with windows falling out of the John Hancock Tower
Don't forget the Great Molasses Flood of 1919 that killed 21 and injured 150 more.
“ Did the bridge builders do something to cause the landslide, or should the bridge never have been built because of the likelihood of a landslide?”
The geotechnical study should have shown the risk of a failure. This could be mitigated by possibly drilling holes and pressure grouting the rock with thin cement to consolidate the rock or soil, removal of loose fill and using benched pre-split blasting to create a solid rock face, or covering with a waterproof barrier fabric. But none of that seems to have been done here for whatever reason.
The Chinese spaceship also got hit by a rock at the new station delaying the return of 3 guys, more bad luck.
In my past (working) life I was a civil engineer. Geology can be a bitch. Yep they drill, they test. Nature can still hide a bunch of crap under ground or behind a mountainside.
Of course engineers can be idiots too...
"The Chinese spaceship also got hit by a rock at the new station delaying the return of 3 guys, more bad luck."
Karma would have it it was debris from their anti-satellite test. China is asshoe.
All the people standing at the other end... I'd be too nervous to stand there.
For spectacular failure it almost rivals the Baltimore bridge collapse.
I'm not an engineer - but the thing appears waify delicate and flimsy - too tall and not enough structure and buttresses.
EP = except this one - no one died.
How do you say "Oops" in Mandarin?
Bridge of SSSSSSssssiiiiigggghhhssssssss!
"None of the project engineers predicted this? None of them even suspected it? There weren't any whistleblowers?!"
"Forget it Jake, this is China."
Who you callin’ hongqi?!?!
except this one - no one died.
Thus the “almost.”
Ho Lee Fook!
Just last year I crossed over a huge Chinese bridge built in Costa Rica connecting the Guancaste Peninsula to the mainland. In the olden days of the 70's to the late 1990's it was a long bushwhacking drive down impossible roads to get to the surf. I wasn't expecting the huge Chinese bridge from Puntarenas across the Gulf. At the time I remember thinking that the Chinese were slap dash and shit for bridge building. Just a feeling. In retrospect the bridge was way better if less romantic than 4 wheel drive through the jungle. I'll call it a push.
I was on a doc review project once...
Target Corporation were claiming that all their cotton was Egyptian, BUT their totals were more annually than what Egypt was overall exporting! Yes, it turns out most of it was from China, despite the labels. You want a sneak look at the bribery that inspectors get in China, with the pictures of Chinese bales mismarked even... wow. They are not like us, even though our businessmen can be bribed too...
Sure would not have wanted to be the Target lawyer defending that fiasco. Some people are corrupt, plenty of other gets rich off the corruption too.
https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/target-issue-refunds-fake-egyptian-cotton-sheets/
Statistically sound engineering is still subject to known and unknown random processes.
Eva Marie: "What is a charmadillo?"
A charmadillo is when you take a baby armadillo and wear him on a bracelet. - Stefon
CC, JSM
When I was a kid I saw a pursadillo. Purse made out of an armadillo.
James K: "In addition to the others mentioned, I also remember someone killed in the then relatively new "Big Dig" $14 billion tunnel in Boston. Tons of concrete fell on a car."
Lots of similarities between Bulger-era Mass. government contracting and the postmodern ChiComs. CC, JSM
Just over a year ago, there was the railway station canopy collapse in Novi Sad, Serbia with 16 fatalities. A Chinese-led consortium had overseen the station's recent renovation.
Maybe we should get the Chinese to build tunnels for Hamas.
China’s new “Bridge and Road Initiative” may have a slow take rate.
“ I'm not an engineer - but the thing appears waify delicate and flimsy - too tall and not enough structure and buttresses.”
I am an engineer and remember dealing with something called the slenderness ratio. Per ChatGPT:
“The slenderness ratio is a key concept in engineering design, particularly in structural and mechanical engineering, used to describe how tall and thin (or slender) a column or structural member is. It’s a measure of a member’s susceptibility to buckling under compressive loads.”
I know it wasn’t the prime cause of failure here, but it’s the first thing I thought of when I saw those spindly columns.
Any engineer can design a bridge that stands up. It takes a great engineer to design a bridge that just barely stands up.
Just think of all the economic benefits when they get to build it again.
The sudden collapse of a new structure has raised concerns about long-term construction standards, particularly in China’s western provinces, where major transportation projects often traverse unstable terrain.
Although there is no evidence yet of construction flaws in the Hongqi Bridge, the incident comes just months after another high-profile failure. In August, a railway bridge under construction in Qinghai province collapsed during a cable-tensioning operation, killing at least 12 workers and leaving four others missing. The bridge over the Yellow River on the Sichuan-Qinghai Railway is the world's largest-span double-track continuous steel truss arch bridge.
Charmadillo is a Pokémon. It’s next form is Charmazuki, and it final form is Charmazilla
"Any engineer can design a bridge that stands up. It takes a great engineer to design a bridge that just barely stands up."
"It would be well if engineering were less generally thought of, and even defined, as the art of constructing. In a certain important sense it is rather the art of not constructing; or, to define it rudely but not inaptly, it is the art of doing that well with one dollar, which any bungler can do with two after a fashion." - Arthur M. Wellington
"Made in China"... and folks how is your Chinese made coffee maker working these days?
Jersy @ 7:11
I don't think it was the bridge. I think there was lack of site preparation and examination. They should have caught that fault on the hillside.
This is one of the reasons I'm not too concerned over Chinas military. They've managed to screw up hundreds of roads and bridges in just the last five years.
The immediate problem was where they put the bridge. One end was too close to a geologic hazard and it took the bridge out. This should have been foreseeable. Probably expensive to mitigate, but certainly foreseeable.
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