
Great miscalculations: The French railway error and others - msantos
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27509559
======
CaptainZapp
No such list is really complete without the first rendition of the Tacoma
Narrows Bridge :

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_(1940)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_\(1940\))

For reasons, which become immediately obvious, it was lovingly nick named
"Galopping Gertie"

~~~
jacquesm
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw)

Incredible how much of a beating it took before it finally collapsed. It's
also a lot more flexible than you'd expect.

~~~
ColinWright
If you watch a speeded up version you can see a torsion wave travel down from
one tower to the other, and then reflect back again. Quite impressive.

~~~
jacquesm
Someone made a wind based energy generation system based on the same principle
but the name escapes me, it was all over the news a couple of years ago.

------
c0ur7n3y
The list is missing the Hyatt Hotel Walkway Collapse:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Hotel_disaster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Hotel_disaster)

The contractor made a small design change to make things easier for themselves
and ended up causing a bolt to hold twice the weight it was intended to hold.
114 people were killed and 216 were injured.

~~~
smellf
Holy shit, that was gruesome:

> Those people who could walk were instructed to leave the hotel to simplify
> the rescue effort; those mortally injured were told they were going to die
> and given morphine. Often, rescuers had to dismember bodies in order to
> reach survivors among the wreckage. One victim's right leg was trapped under
> an I-beam and had to be amputated by a surgeon, a task which was completed
> with a chain saw.

(Also, how do you format a quotation on HN??)

------
eloisant
The first one is not a mis-measurement. They knew some of the platforms were
not to the norm, and that they had to be adapted by RFF. The person who
started the info to blame on the SNCF is linked to a region that doesn't want
to pay for the normalization of the platforms.

~~~
seren
The whole affair is really blown out of proportion because it is very
understandable in layman terms. On the other hand, it seems that the Louvois
pay system [1] has cost about half a billion euros to French tax payers and
does not work either. But since it is a complex sw product it is much harder
to find an obvious culprit and it will be swept under the rug...

[1]
[http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logiciel_unique_%C3%A0_vocation...](http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logiciel_unique_%C3%A0_vocation_interarm%C3%A9es_de_la_solde#Co.C3.BBt)

~~~
dwd
Lots of blame to go around here, a few sackings but no one got sued. $1.2
billion dollars worth of software that probably still doesn't work as
required.

[http://www.zdnet.com/au/ibm-should-have-been-disqualified-
fr...](http://www.zdnet.com/au/ibm-should-have-been-disqualified-from-qld-
health-payroll-tender-report-7000019026/)

[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/technology/states-health-
pay...](http://www.theaustralian.com.au/technology/states-health-payroll-
change-was-adopted-untested/story-e6frgakx-1225888223958)

------
julienchastang
I am surprised the Denver International Airport Baggage System fiasco
([http://calleam.com/WTPF/?page_id=2086](http://calleam.com/WTPF/?page_id=2086))
did not make the list. It is one the greatest failures of this sort ever, and
is often used as a case study of what not to do. The baggage system cost tax
payers hundreds of millions of dollars and it never worked a day. For that
price in the mid 90s we could have gotten a light rail system in the entire
Denver metro area (one that is finally being installed now for a much higher
price).

~~~
eCa
Speaking of airports, the opening of Heathrow Terminal 5[1] was not without
problems..

    
    
        On the day of opening it quickly became apparent that the new terminal was
        not operating smoothly, and British Airways cancelled 34 flights and was later
        forced to suspend baggage check-in. Over the following 10 days some 
        42,000 bags failed to travel with their owners, and over 500 flights were
        cancelled. 
    

Of course, Berlin's new airport[2] is in another league:

    
    
        Originally planned to be opened in 2010, Berlin Brandenburg Airport has
        encountered a series of delays due to poor construction planning, management
        and execution. [...] any dates prior to late 2016 are considered unlikely.
    

Originally budgeted at €2.8 billion, already in 2012 that number had increased
to €4.3 billion.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Heathrow_Terminal_5#Open...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Heathrow_Terminal_5#Opening)

[2] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin-
Brandenburg_Internationa...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin-
Brandenburg_International_Airport)

------
eCa
The nearly 300 metres high Citigroup Center[1] in New York had a change during
construction:

    
    
        original design for the "chevron" load braces used 
        welded joints. But during construction, to save labor
        and material costs, bolted joints were used instead
    

Which led to:

    
    
         Wind tunnel tests with models of Citigroup Center revealed the wind
         speed required to bring down the building; wind of this speed
         occurs on average once in 55 years. The building has a tuned mass
         damper, which negates much of the wind load. 
    
         If electric power failed, say during a hurricane, the damper would
         shut down and a much lower-speed wind would suffice; wind of this
         speed occurs on average once in 16 years.
    

The joints were welded in secret.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citigroup_Center](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citigroup_Center)

------
xux
I think the more interesting point to note here, is BBC's toedipping into this
type of listicle content.

In a recent internal report[1], BBC was suggested to be mindful of Buzzfeed's
stragegy. To quote from the article:

>The report, commissioned by BBC head of news James Harding from Sir Howard
Stringer, also said that the BBC's web presence lacks "character and
personality" compared with younger rivals such as Vice Media and Buzzfeed.

[1] [http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/may/21/bbc-news-
buzzfe...](http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/may/21/bbc-news-buzzfeed-
digital-strategy-sir-howard-stringer)

------
cratermoon
It's not really true that the Mars Climate Orbiter crashed because of the
metric/English mismatch.

The team knew well before arrival at Mars that there were anomalies in the
location of the probe. Thanks to management incompetence quite similar to that
which led to the loss of shuttles Challenger and Columbia, no course
correction maneuvers, which could have saved the mission, were allowed.

[http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/robotic-
exploration/why-t...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/robotic-
exploration/why-the-mars-probe-went-off-course)

------
rainingtomorrow
So now even BBC takes their content from Reddit threads.

~~~
Ygg2
In a more hilarious and trollish side there is of course the unforgettable
KTVU:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qvjNSYRMu4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qvjNSYRMu4)

And people wonder why PR firms are strong. They are strong because there
aren't any proper journalists left.

~~~
MrBuddyCasino
This was the funniest thing i've seen in a long time. Thanks. I suspect it
dawned on her that something was wrong when she read the names aloud, but then
managed to stay admirably serious.

------
christkv
I present to you the norwegian entry caused by inaccurate calculations.

[http://home.versatel.nl/the_sims/rig/sleipnera.htm](http://home.versatel.nl/the_sims/rig/sleipnera.htm)

------
minikites
There's also the Citicorp Center:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citigroup_Center#Engineering_cr...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citigroup_Center#Engineering_crisis_of_1978)

[http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/structural-
integrity/](http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/structural-integrity/)

------
ebbv
The cancer of listicles has even spread to the BBC? So sad. Let's not
encourage this.

~~~
msantos
To be fair, BBC's "Magazine" section has always had this kind of stuff.

~~~
JonnieCache
Yeah. They should really make it a different colour or something to stop
people getting annoyed.

------
hcrisp
Reminds me of this joke. Apologies for any hurt feelings.

"A perfect world is where the British are the police, the Germans are the
engineers, and the French are the cooks. A worst-case world is where the
British are the cooks, the Germans are the police, and the French are the
engineers."

~~~
hussong
There's also an extended version of that joke involving Italian car mechanics
and Swiss lovers.

~~~
canistr
And yet another one involving the culture of Canada wherein Canada had the
opportunity to have American engineering, British culture, and French cuisine.
Instead, they opted for American culture, British cuisine, and French
engineering.

~~~
toolslive
This joke does not work in Belgium, as we consider French cuisine an inferior
version of ours. (The story goes that the cooks of Louis XIV came from Namur).

~~~
canistr
It's not so much a joke as it is a reflection on the history and development
of Canada.

------
kahirsch
Is the story about the Laufenburg bridge accurate? I would never have thought
that bridge builders would have used altitude above sea level as a basis for
building, instead of some local, direct measurement.

~~~
rjp0008
The local direct measurement IS altitude above sea level. The problem is that
they weren't using the same reference points.

~~~
what_ever
And the description says that they did consider the difference between two
reference points - 27cm. They just considered the difference in the opposite
way. So instead of 27cm - 27cm = 0 difference they ended up with 27cm -
(-27cm) = 54cm difference in the levels.

------
chasing
A joke from a fictional movie makes the top ten? Have there really been so few
real-world engineering and design fiascos?

~~~
choult
Someone didn't read the whole paragraph for the real world example: Black
Sabbath's massive Stonehenge in 1983...

~~~
chasing
Poorly-sized props from a Black Sabbath tour in 1983 make the top ten? Have
there really been so few engineering and design fiascos?

------
maxerickson
I always like to point out this little snippet about the MCO:

[http://futureboy.us/frinkdocs/#MCO](http://futureboy.us/frinkdocs/#MCO)

Like several of the others, it was mostly a documentation and communication
problem.

~~~
cratermoon
And a management failure: [http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/robotic-
exploration/why-t...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/robotic-
exploration/why-the-mars-probe-went-off-course)

------
ericedge
Monitorama hosted a great talk by Pete Cheslock about the Vasa warship
project. Available on Vimeo here:
[http://vimeo.com/95284690](http://vimeo.com/95284690)

------
TwoBit
NASA is working in imperial units? Why?

~~~
cratermoon
The units problem was incidental and really management casting about for
blame: [http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/robotic-
exploration/why-t...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/robotic-
exploration/why-the-mars-probe-went-off-course)

------
Shivetya
toss in the Big Dig and that high speed rail in California if they ever intend
to build it. Basically far too many transportation oriented projects get
really over budget and suffer multiple design changes.

Recently France was chided for buying 2000 trains that were the wrong size.
Even in this day and age of computer power its amazing how simple things pass
by

