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The magnificent Great Wall of China, the beautiful Hanging Gardens of ancient Babylon, the unique Egyptian pyramids..... There seems to have never been a lack of majestic and splendid buildings in human history.
But there is such a building, which is not only beautifully designed, but also invests a lot of money, but in the end it becomes a "serious wrong project".
In the world, there are not a few such "seriously wrong projects", and even the mainland accounts for two of them.
So what are the typical "serious error projects"? What are the two major "serious error projects" on the mainland?
Tacoma Narrows Bridge, USA
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is a historic suspension bridge located between the city of Tacoma and Port Gig in Washington, USA.
Back in the early 20th century, an American bridge engineer came up with the idea of building a bridge over the Tacoma Strait.
Because the Tacoma Strait connects the city of Tacoma to the port of Gig, the demand for transportation on both sides of the Strait has increased as the two cities have grown.
However, due to the blockage of the Tacoma Strait, if you want to get from Tacoma City to Gig Harbor, you need to drive around the road to avoid the Tacoma Strait, which undoubtedly causes great trouble for the residents of the two places.
As a result, there is an urgent need for a more efficient mode of transportation to connect the city of Tacoma with Port Gig to facilitate economic development and exchange between the two places. However, for a number of reasons, this vision has not been realized for decades.
It wasn't until 1938 that the Washington state government finally decided to start construction of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
According to the Washington government's vision, the construction of this bridge will not only solve the transportation problem in the southern area of Washington State, improve transportation efficiency, but also promote the development of the local economy, and make transportation between Gig Harbor and the city of Tacoma more convenient.
With so many benefits to building the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, why did it turn out to be a "serious mistake"?
It turned out that during the construction of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, there was a serious shortage of funds.
In order to reduce costs, New York-based engineer Leon Moiseff proposed a novel design to replace the originally planned 7.6-meter truss girders with 2.4-meter ordinary steel beams.
Not only did the change drastically reduce the cost of construction from $11 million to $6.4 million, but it also gave the bridge its slender and elegant appearance, which earned the Tacoma Bridge the nickname "Dancing Gettie."
Although this design saves costs, it also buries very serious safety risks.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge has a narrow deck of only 11.9 meters wide, which is rare on suspension bridges of the same period.
More importantly, the designers did not fully assess the impact of wind vibration and did not fully consider the stability of the bridge deck under the action of strong winds.
On July 1, 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was completed and opened to traffic as scheduled. But people soon found that the amplitude of the bridge fluctuated so violently that even when driving on the bridge, cars in the distance could be seen disappearing with the undulations of the bridge deck.
However, this phenomenon did not attract enough attention and eventually led to disaster.
Just four months after its construction, a rare gale caused the bridge to twist violently. The amplitude grew larger and larger, until the bridge deck was tilted to about 45 degrees, the booms were pulled off one by one, the steel beams on the bridge deck were broken, and finally the bridge collapsed and fell into the canyon.
Fortunately, traffic was closed before the bridge was destroyed, so there were no casualties, but the incident still became a major blunder in the history of engineering.
Bolu Castle Villa
The construction of the villa of Bolu Castle was originally born out of the consideration of the protection and inheritance of the local historical and cultural heritage. The Bolu region has been a crossroads of culture and art since ancient times, with a rich history and a rich cultural heritage.
In order to integrate this valuable cultural heritage into modern life, so that more people can experience and feel the charm of this culture, the idea of building the Villa de Bolu Castle was born.
And, with the booming global tourism industry, the Bolu region has gradually become a popular tourist destination for tourists. In order to meet the growing demand for tourism while maintaining the uniqueness of the local culture.
In the end, the local government decided to create a villa complex that could not only reflect the history and culture, but also provide modern and comfortable accommodation on the basis of preserving the original historical sites.
During the construction process, the designers delved into the historical architectural styles of the Bolu region and adopted a design concept that was in harmony with them.
They skillfully combine traditional castle elements with modern building techniques, so that the whole villa complex not only retains the charm of an ancient castle, but also has the convenience and comfort of modern architecture.
But even so, it is still inevitable that the Bolu Castle Villa will finally be "honored" and selected as the "world's worst mistake project". So what exactly went wrong with the construction of the Bolu Castle Villa?
Compared to the construction problems of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the biggest problem of Bolu Castle Villas is economic.
The Bolu Castle Villas project was originally planned as a high-end resort, targeting mainly the wealthy in the Middle East.
According to the Turkish Free Press, the main buyers of the resort are from Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and other places, and each villa is selling for between $370,000 and $530,000.
However, just as the construction was nearing completion and more than 300 villas had been sold, a sudden economic crisis disrupted all plans.
The collapse in international oil prices has caused the wealth of many wealthy Middle Eastern tycoons to shrink dramatically, and they are unable to continue to pay for their home purchases. The change came as a bolt from the blue for developer Sarot Group, as the rupture of the funding chain not only cost them their investments, but also saddled them with a huge debt of $27 million.
As a result, the Sarot Group was unable to develop any more villas, and what was supposed to be a luxury resort has now become a deserted "ghost castle".
Three bridges on the Qianjiang River
The Third Qianjiang Bridge, also known as the Xixing Bridge, stands on the Qiantang River and is a key passage between the old city of Hangzhou and Binjiang, Xiaoshan and Xiaoshan International Airport.
With the vigorous development of China's economy and the wave of reform and opening up in the 90s of the last century, Hangzhou's economy, culture and population have grown rapidly, and the original transportation network has been unable to meet the increasingly busy cross-river traffic.
Especially when connecting traditional city centers and emerging economic and technological development zones, traffic problems become particularly prominent. In order to break this limitation, Hangzhou urgently needed a new bridge across the river to help the city continue to expand.
It is in this context of the times that the Qianjiang Three Bridges came into being. In 1992, at an important foreign investment fair in Zhejiang Province, Hong Kong's Orient Overseas Land & Investment Limited had a unique vision of Hangzhou's huge potential and the necessity of bridge construction.
They decided to join hands with the Hangzhou Municipal Transportation Bureau to jointly invest and introduce international advanced technology and management experience to build this iconic bridge.
The construction of the Third Qianjiang Bridge was officially started at the end of 1993 and was completed and opened to traffic in early 1997 after several years of meticulous construction. But no one thought that this magnificent Qianjiang Third Bridge would eventually become a "bad debt".
Soon after the opening of the building, various problems were exposed one after another. The mistakes in the construction process led to the loss of the vertical prestressed part of the main bridge box girder, the pipeline grouting is not full, the joints are dislocated, the hemp surface, cracks and other quality defects.
Normally, the service life of the bridge is about several decades, but it is precisely because of many hidden dangers that the third bridge of the Qianjiang River has a major accident ten years after its completion, and finally becomes one of the serious mistakes of the project.
Changsha Yuanwang Building
The construction of Yuanwang Building stems from the rapid development of Changsha's economy and the acceleration of urbanization.
With the rise of the central region, Changsha was in dire need of a new landmark that would represent the city's image to showcase its growing economic power and thriving cityscape. Therefore, the original intention of the construction of Yuanwang Building is to become the new business card of Changsha.
According to the "Changsha City Plan" and other relevant documents, it is not difficult to see that the construction of Yuanwang Building aims to improve the urban quality of Changsha and create a new urban center.
Why, then, did such a building inevitably become one of the "worst failures"?
The design team did not fully consider the geological conditions and the surrounding environment when planning, resulting in an unstable foundation design for the building. This problem was gradually exposed in the subsequent construction, which brought huge risks to the entire project.
Moreover, in the estimation of capital costs, the Yuanda Technology Group, which is responsible for building the building, also made mistakes. At the beginning, the cost of their budget was about 5 billion yuan, but to build such a building, it would take at least 20 billion yuan to invest.
For many reasons, Changsha Yuanwang Building has not been approved since 2014, and there is still no trace of construction, and it is very likely to become an "unfinished project".
From the above four "world's worst failed projects", it is not difficult to see that the reason why these projects have become "bad debts" is largely due to the mistakes in decision-making in the design and construction process.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, no matter how tall a skyscraper, laying the foundation is also the most important thing. Details determine the winner, only by giving full play to the spirit of craftsmanship and polishing the details, can we truly build a great building!
Resources
[1] "The million-dollar bridge was blown off four months after it was opened to traffic, but it became a milestone in the history of construction" - The Paper
[2] "Qianjiang Third Bridge Collapse Accident Announced Investigation Results" - North Net
[3] "The world's tallest building" is 10 meters taller than the Burj Khalifa, and the survey says that it has not been reported for construction" - China News Network