Your videos are very well narrated which makes them excellent to listen to. People who can't see might lose a bit from not seeing diagrams but your descriptions of the problem get over that to a large extent. Therefore, when it gets to the bingo card bit at the end, could you say what you've crossed off. Also, although my eyesight is good, I find it a little hard to read, writing could do with being a bit bolder.
Japanese inspector fired for wanting to inspect all the welds? Break out the Bingo Card. I am sensing an appearance of the clipboard wielding labcoat guy...
@@erik_dk842 I think we all know by now the real reason behind that statement was that he didn't want to pay the sort of wages that experienced submarine engineers (who are mostly white men over 50, due to the constraints of the industry in the past), and so he played off being cheap as being progressive. Remember, HE was a white guy over 50 himself! That "anti woke" bs has been debunked so many times, and it's gotten pretty tired.
More than likely he felt horrible about the fact that he couldn't have changed the outcome. The tragedy of something like that goes a bit beyond the satisfaction of the "I told you so" feeling.
@@RT-qd8yl That's what I was thinking, he must have felt horribly guilty, ven though there was really nothing he could have done about it since he was fired.
Lol my civil engineer dad used to get 'fired' from jobs when he refused to rubber stamp stuff without a real inspection. I still remember him complaining that GM wouldn't let him get his own soil samples, he was given them by the plant mgr. He put that part in the inspection report and refused to remove it. Can't guarantee what you didnt do, he stated that the sample given to him was the basis of the report but it had no proven connection to the plant. Don't be suspicious!! Go dad! 😂😂
This should be rewarded and guarded from company interference. sadly it seems one can only get ahead by "playing ball" i remember the china syndrome. Indeed "go Dad!"
A friend's dad got a Private Investigator put on him after he raised with his boss that his workplace demolished an Asbestos building without even warning a nearby town that was downwind. Corruption runs deep tbh.
After this disaster, investigators found out that the Dangsan railway bridge (also on the Han River) was also poorly built. Some subway drivers complained when they passed Dangsan Railway Bridge that the subway shook too big. Investigators found out that the Dangsan railway bridge was so poorly built that it could have collapsed before the Seongsu bridge. And subways passing through Dangsan Bridge are filled with a lot of people (almost 2000 people). (That's still the case today.). After they found out about this problem, they demolished the Dangsan Bridge and rebuilt it. If they ignored this problem or Dangsan Bridge collapsed first, huge catastrophes that would kill nearly 2,000 people would happen.
I would imagine that your chances of escaping a submerged railway car after collapse would also be highly unlikely. My guess is that very few would have survived if that had happened!
As a resident of Minnesota who was on the 35W bridge about 5 minutes before it collapsed.. I was sitting on the bridge over the Mississippi River for at least 3 minutes due to traffic... It was only a few minutes after I finally crossed over that it collapsed... This whole story was eerily similar. Gusset plates that were too thin, construction from the late 1960s, Not estimating that It would be a major bridge connecting the north and south, years of neglect, years of adding deicing chemicals... 😢
Not really 35W bridge was an engineering design failure. And it saw it's fair share of upgrades like the deice system which added lots of weight to the already underengineered bridge. The gusset plates called for in the original plans were way too thin.
My grandfather drove your bus at that time. He was scheduled to be on that bridge when it collapsed but he was running a few minutes behind. He was pretty happy he had passengers that were not getting up in the morning and ready on time that day.
We often tend to take the safety of bridges for granted. It's almost unbelievable how safe they are, given that there's tens of thousands of bridges all across the USA, and it's rare that one collapses, considering the amount of weight and traffic they are repeatedly subjected to (along with the elements, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.). I once heard an engineer say that they are supposed to calculate the maximum load (weight), then engineer it to withstand ten times that.
hey plainly, just wanted to say as someone who is getting a degree in engineering that i really value your work. its really important that these situations are brought to light and are kept in the mindset. each of these scenarios has important lessons to learn, and these videos provide a really valueble service. thank you
I'm reminded of a bridge disaster that I experienced back in 1989. The bridge in question was the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge which connects Seattle to the east side of Lake Washington. One morning, during rush hour, the lift span opened, without lights or barricades, presenting the traffic with a five-foot tall wall of concrete in the middle of the roadway! The proximate cause was an electrical short circuit but the underlying cause was complacency. For the previous 18 years, the bridge operators had been performing a "dry run" of the lift mechanism every Friday morning. They did this without stopping traffic, so no one would be inconvenienced. The dry run would exercise the motors and the gearing, but a safety mechanism would keep the actual lift span disconnected from the rest of the mechanicals. Until it didn't. After the incident, they began doing their dry runs during periods of low traffic and they would lower the barricades. This is probably just a blip as far as disasters go. There was one fatality and about half a dozen injuries. My involvement, fortunately, was limited to being stuck in unmoving traffic for a couple of hours. The moral of the story is that safety mechanisms are very good things to have but don't depend on them. They are your very last line of defense.
A note on units. An imperial ton is very slightly larger than a metric tonne but for practical purposes they are identical. The metric tonne is what is now used in the UK. It is not the same as a US ton - it is unlikely that a US newspaper would ever quote imperial ton measurements as they are obsolete and were never used in Korea or the US. Countries like Canada and Australia did use them historically, of course.
@@IstasPumaNevada Generally, if you're measuring with a unit that large, good enough is exactly that unless being more precise is critical. More so for the builders than the talkers in the comments, but it appears we're officially more worried about load numbers than the builders, tragically.
You can’t have cheap, fast and,good all at the same time. If you want it cheap and fast, it won’t be good. If you want it good and fast, it won’t be cheap. And if you want it cheap and good, it won’t be fast.
Kinda reminds me of the man repairing the ship with one blow of the hammer and charging $1,000. Anyone could hit it with a hammer, but he's the one with the knowledge of where to hit it. Now that I typed that I'm not sure if it makes sense to other people; I'm not entirely lucid
In addition to this and the Sampoong department store collapse, around the same time an apartment building under construction also collapsed. While that one had no fatalities or injuries, it probably terrified people more since it meant you weren't safe even in your own home. Those three really got Koreans to demand better safety standards and to clean up corruption between the construction industry and government. (It was common to just bribe the inspector instead actually bothering to pass inspection, or to bribe the official to get building plans approved.)
You could do an entire channel just focusing on Seoul engineering & city planning disasters. Their post war expansion has caused so many ripple effects & more disasters are just hiding waiting to happen. Its so scary
I think the that a lot of people don't necessarily realize why that is, that after the war, South Korea pushed very hard to catch up with the rest of the developed world, and consequently the incentive to skip safety steps and meet/beat deadlines was high.
Almost all buildings and infrastructure still standing in Seoul today have been built since the 90s for this exact reason. As the country’s financial situation improved, they tore down nearly everything and built new, hopefully with better standards.
A year after the Seongsu bridge collapse, the Sampoong mall collapsed killing 502 people and injuring nearly 1000. Another case of safety standards being overlooked in the name of profit
It is so nice of you to show the credits in Korean. My friend witnessed this incident. He told me about it a while back. It was a well constructed master piece from you again. Thank you so much.
You should do some videos on some of the NYC subway crashes (Malbone St, Union Sq, Williamsburg Bridge crashes). The system itself is something interesting to look over as well.
@@nbrown5907 They are changing the entry gate system because of that, but what I am talking about is how the subway and track system itself operates. It is the only 24 hour subway system with full-time dedicated express services and the tracks are laid out in a way that you can play mix services around in case part of it gets jammed up.
Absolutely! Even when doing custom work as a tailor and leatherworker, I tell clients that they can have things done quickly, cheaply, well, or any combination of the two, but all three are impossible. And in some cases, doing it either quickly or cheaply just isn't an option.
As an artist/artisan, I can definitely do quick & cheap, but you wont like the end result.. and you wont believe the amount of clients who initially wants this. Ikea is for quick & cheap!
@@janemiettinen5176 I try to warn people who want fast and cheap that although I'll do my best, their end product will probably look fast and cheap, and have next to no lifespan, but in our current culture where everything is disposable? Why are they even getting potentially high-quality custom work done in the first place if they don't want the best I can do?
I'd add "Overly Confident Officials" too.... i'm sure you said towards the beginning that they weren't to concerned about inspections as it was a new structure. And also "Easily Preventable".... if they did the job right first time round they would not be having to build a new bridge.
With the structure being built quickly and cheaply, the lack of maintenance, the increased usage, and it being rush hour, I'm amazed the number of casualties wasn't higher! As for the bingo card, I'd add time pressure (to build quickly), overly confident officials, recently inspected (a woefully inadequate repair was made the previous day), and easily preventable. The fact that during construction, the weld inspector was fired for *doing his job* really says all you need to know about that company's building standards.
It says it all. I routinely deliver goods to the Great Belt consortium in Denmark. They are responsible for the maintenance of the 2 bridges (the high bridge on the east side of the belt, and the low bridge on the west) spanning the entire belt. I usually deliver at a point directly beneath the first section of the high bridge where it protrudes from the anchoring points on the shore. And no matter when I arrive there, there is always at least a dozen men working there (meaning that I will maybe see 2 or 3 while the rest are inside the construction somewhere doing their work). They even have a fixed and permanent compound to house everything they need when working and quarters to relax in while on a break. So it's a fairly lucrative and permanent contract for any contractor to have. And the Øresound bridge between Denmark and Sweden has the same team and compound already working there daily despite being very young in terms of construction age.
It's pretty cool that you did this video and you've really explained more of the engineering in this bridge. Rotten Mango recently did a podcast about this bridge last week, so it's good to have more information about the disaster.
Nah. Not that dangerous. For one thing, no heavy traffic was moving on the bridge anymore, for obvious reasons. Secondly, a lot of weight on the remaining structure had been removed when the 48 meter section tore loose and fell. And finally, the weight of these reporters didn't even amount combined to the average weight of a common van. The real danger to these reporters would be their own courage or lack thereof. The closer they would move to the ragged edges of the remaining section, the greater the danger of one of them loosing his balance and falling over the edge.
@@ShawnHCorey I am well aware of that problem. I'm a navy guy, and we are permanently based right next to the local railway bridge which was originally constructed as an opening bridge to allow passage of ships such as our own naval vessel. It was closed down years ago because it was rammed by a ship that lost engine control. The damage that was visual amounted to mere scratches in the paint work as the ship was making a 180 degree turn some 50 meters from it when it lost the engine and rammed it broadside, meaning that it had the impact spread along the whole length of the ship at low speed (3 knots). Yet there was some minor damage to the swivelling construction that would raise the bridge section, so the authorities decided to close it permanently for safety reasons. I was on the team inspecting the swivel because they used our naval vessel to make a closer inspection of the outside damages and then was used to make light for them within the bridge where lights were present, but not so strong as to allow a good visibility on details. I of course didn't understand all the tech goppledegook they were speaking, but I did manage to find out that the only real damage to the swivel was actually a rod that was bent visibly and a hinge on the other side showing cracks as a result of the collision. Something that should have been easily replaced with new and better, more durable parts within a week or 2. The bridge sections hadn't even been misaligned relative to each other. Yet it was considered grave enough to be a real danger in the future, so they decided to close it permanently and make it a part of the overall plan of building the new railroad/car bridge construction about to start on the other side of the island and spanning a total reconstruction of the railroad net ranging from Ringsted to Rødby and the Fehmern Belt tunnel currently under construction. It's not so much to make the permanent closure a part of the greater railroad scheme that is important here. It is the fact that something that could safely be repaired in the span of 2 weeks still caused them to consider it an extreme danger despite the bridge naturally not opening or closing in those 2 weeks. And I know that the rest of the construction was still sound even at the point of collision because they brought an x-ray scanner and went over every bit of the bridge, including the sections not affected by the collision, and all the scannings showed no damage on the surface or within on the various instruments and construction parts and machiney other than the ones mentioned. So these guys took security extremely serious. But I wrote as I did on the reply because one of the engineers on the case is an aquaintence living just a few houses down from my own, and he used this bridge collaps as one of his stories to make a point on matters of bridge security, and he was the one who told me that despite there almost certainly having been spars and joints damaged directly beneath where they were standing near the edge, the group of reporters represented very little to none in terms of hazard to the remaining strength of the remaining part of that section. Had they driven auto cranes out there to salvage anything from the fallen section, you wouldn't have caught him anywhere near that bridge because he wouldn't want to see more casualties in that disaster.
@@Asylar343 You still fall with the same speed as a car. Quite honestly. Why is nobody considering that the first thing after the disaster, some structural engineer is out there checking the state of the remaining structure since first responders and later salvage crews and investigators need to work just below? I'm pretty sure that he was the one who told everybody that it was safe to stand there in terms of the human weight. Just like the structural engineers could report the bridge safe as long as you didn't try to open it when I saw them work.
Yeah, feels like they wanted to hire someone to blame if (when) things went south. Had he complied to not inspect everything, I'm 100% sure they would've thrown the inspector under the bus, getting away even more easily themselves.
Oh, gosh, I lived south of the bridge when I was young... like, really young (read: I was 2 at the time), and my dad used to use the bridge to commute to and from work everyday. That day, though, my parents said he'd taken the day off to take my mom and me to a local park for a "picnic", and, so, he was at home. They saw the collapse via news and got super worried, as most people would have at the time. My entire extended family (both parents' sides) called throughout the day to check if my dad was okay, since they had no idea that he'd takaen off that day. I feel like our guardian angels were watching over our family that day 😊 thanks so much for covering a major tragedy from my country! ^u^
I clicked on this video soooo fast!! Plainly difficult! is one of my favorite RUclipsr!!..❤❤❤thank you so much! For taking the time,effort and energy to make us awesome videos I love learning about all the different nuances involved in these horrible and unfortunate accidents!… so sad that most of them could have been avoided altogether. again thank you for walking us through everything that happened. Hope you and your family are doing fantastic!!❤
It's honestly kind of refreshing to know that people were actually charged and convicted in this situation. People and corporations get away with this kind of thing way too often, which is absolutely infuriating.
Look… if you started doing podcasts, I definitely would subscribe. You have the perfect voice and tone for falling asleep. (Sounds weird but I love it) plus the research behind your videos is amazing… I subscribe to a bunch of disaster podcasts but I love your dry humor and intelligence on whatever you talk about. Much love to you from Richmond Virginia, USA. Keep making amazing progress!
Sounds to me that u need some "drachinifel" in your life. Thats my go to "falling asleep" voice. Check him out and if his videos are something for you then u have a treasure trove with long videos and a calm voice with dry humor
Love the stickers. I'm not a sticker guy, but I love the foot-stomp bunnymen and their cast of usual suspects. But that is because of the humor you sometimes introduce around them (Me again??). Genius. What a fun brand! You are sold out of all merch, except for 8 sets of stickers. Well Done!
John, it's ironic that you posted this just before the Baltimore bridge collapse. Did you see it coming? Hope to see it one day as a posting on your channel....
Your videos help me stay motivated to become a better material science engineer everyday. In a industry where bosses constantly pressure you into cost-cuts, thai reminds why I would rather become unemployed than be an accomolice of such practices
I wonder if that Japanese inspector ended up being a witness for the prosecution or if the fact that he had been fired for wanting to inspect every weld came to light and was used in the prosecution.
That is always the problem of wanting to modernize a country so quickly, the bad thing is that the price is not paid by the government or companies, but by the civilians
My concern is that modern China has been building infrastructure very quickly, and rumours circulate about 'short cuts' and corruption. This disaster could happen in China in a few years.
it's been happening on and off already. One of the main contributors to the large loss of life in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake was attributed to the poor construction quality that led to many buildings collapsing, particularly those built in the last 30 years or so (20ish years at that point) Many older buildings withstood the earthquake, while pretty much every building that was younger suffered total collapse or severe damage. There have been many highway, building and bridge collapses ever since.
@WouldntULikeToKnow Yeah, “tofu dregs.” That South African guy has a channel criticizing China, he lived there for quite a while. I forget his name, but it’s worth watching.
How about the only deadly accident at the Wuppertal monorail? A train sheared off of it's wheel gondola, and then the wheel gondola fell right after into the passenger filled shell...
A segment of the Tappan Zee bridge in New York collapsed around 1995/96 when I was a senior in college. Oddly, I can't find anything about it searching on the web. A truck and some cars fell into the river. I did at least find one mention of the large truck that broke the side rail and went off the bridge into the Hudson River in 1992 (my freshman year in college). I was going to suggest the collapse for a video. Maybe you'll have better luck than me.
I saw a video about that a long time ago. I can’t remember who did it or where it came from. I am not sure if I can send you a link if I find it but now I wanna rewatch it!
I was so wrong. So the tappan zee never collapsed. It was demolished after the I 35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis brought light to the crumbling infrastructure. Apparently it just wasn’t up to code. That’s why they built the new one. I guess there was a crane collapse at some point. I definitely realized that I got mixed up as well. The sunshine skyway bridge in Florida is a rabbit hole if you are into bridge collapse stuff. Much love from Richmond Virginia, USA. Hope you have a great evening!
@@rocknrollnichole1071 Thanks for looking. I distinctly remember a section of the bridge (westbound) fell suddenly in the 1990s, killing some people. I, too, can only find info on the crane collapse during construction of the replacement bridge. This is going bother me. lol
Great video! ❤️ Also, for anybody interested in a longer detailed vid on this case- I HIGHLY recommend Rotten Mango’s videos on both this bridge and the Sampoong mall collapse, she’s very interesting to listen to with lots of facts and photos as well 🙂👍
Lovely to hear Dong Ah mentioned. 40 years ago I worked on the Saudi Arabia TEP4 contract where Dong Ah had a JV with Bin Laden Construction to build many of the new telecommunications buildings needed to house all the telephone exchanges. #goodolddays
John? It's tRICKy here! Those stickers, they're fantastic! They could be even more so if they were fantastically to magically reappear reborn as fridge magnets, wha'd'a ya' say? Again, admire alll your work, it's to be greatly commended! Make it even more fantastRICKy?
@@GranRey-0 yep, easily done. I used to take dog picture cutouts and apply magnetic backing (eBay) to share with other dog lovers. Still have several on my own fridge.
Maybe, just maybe, you could do this one, out of your comfort zone: Lauda’s crash at Nordschleife ‘76. Some, me included, think something broke on his suspension, but Ferrari’d never admit it. The footage suggests it, though. Worth a try. Then there’s his recovery and the abandoning of this legendary track over safety. It’s been covered lots of times, there’s the movie, but I’d very much like to see your take on it.
On the card I'd also mark time pressure, overly confident officials (in assuming the plate fixed things), easily preventable (if there were proper inspections)... and if we're technical, fatigue (in this case, metal fatigue :p ).
You should never cut corners on a construction job ever! Faulty or shoddy work can eventually weaken a structure to the point of failure, and there is no excuse for it!😡
It's way too common for bridges to collapse from neglect that could have easily been spotted if they would just send a single engineer to look at it. Bolts that connect beams are guaranteed to come out over time from the vibrations of cars crossing the bridge. Deicing is also super corrosive you think anyone that lives where it snows would just know that.
You missed fatigue (metal), "recently inspected" (as questionable repairs were carried out), overly confident officials (some did jail. Result!) and easily preventable - with the inspections that were requested during construction (but instead fired the engineer requesting them), and better overall inspections including better and more frequent checks with the doubled traffic volume...
Since mismangent are consistent factors in all you videos I am mainly discounting that. The loss of life was severe and the inconvenience to the residents was huge so I give it 6.
I was confused when this popped back up in my suggestions as I watched it when it came out, I guess today's news might be uptrafficing bridge disasters in the algorithm. Devastating what happened, I hope the investigation is through, swift, and results in plainly evident cause to either ensure doesn't occur again, or allows the family's to pursue any negligent party
During the title sequence when Plainly Difficult is zooming into the foreground, are you doing a treatment to the video to make it look like a 70s disaster flick? I get that impression and love it but it may be my mind superimposing that. 😊
Thanks for watching!!
Stickers: madebyjohn.bandcamp.com/merch/sticker-set-6x-die-cut-vinyl
Outro Video: ruclips.net/video/c10sL_KoFOU/видео.html
Where's the bingo card? I wanna print it out and use it for my daily news read!!
Please make a sticker of your checker board markers you put in the corner!
Yes, I had the same question! @@relwaretep
Hi John, thanks again for making the Challenger spaceship video I suggested long ago recently.
Your videos are very well narrated which makes them excellent to listen to. People who can't see might lose a bit from not seeing diagrams but your descriptions of the problem get over that to a large extent.
Therefore, when it gets to the bingo card bit at the end, could you say what you've crossed off. Also, although my eyesight is good, I find it a little hard to read, writing could do with being a bit bolder.
Japanese inspector fired for wanting to inspect all the welds? Break out the Bingo Card. I am sensing an appearance of the clipboard wielding labcoat guy...
He wanted to do his job no way
An "I told you so" moment
Being fired from a place not doing the right things is an honor. Imagine being that japanese welding manager after that thing collapses.
Kind of like that OceanGate whistleblower
@@Sniperboy5551 _I don't want to hire white engineers over 50yo with experience_
@@erik_dk842 I think we all know by now the real reason behind that statement was that he didn't want to pay the sort of wages that experienced submarine engineers (who are mostly white men over 50, due to the constraints of the industry in the past), and so he played off being cheap as being progressive. Remember, HE was a white guy over 50 himself! That "anti woke" bs has been debunked so many times, and it's gotten pretty tired.
More than likely he felt horrible about the fact that he couldn't have changed the outcome. The tragedy of something like that goes a bit beyond the satisfaction of the "I told you so" feeling.
@@RT-qd8yl That's what I was thinking, he must have felt horribly guilty, ven though there was really nothing he could have done about it since he was fired.
Lol my civil engineer dad used to get 'fired' from jobs when he refused to rubber stamp stuff without a real inspection. I still remember him complaining that GM wouldn't let him get his own soil samples, he was given them by the plant mgr. He put that part in the inspection report and refused to remove it. Can't guarantee what you didnt do, he stated that the sample given to him was the basis of the report but it had no proven connection to the plant. Don't be suspicious!! Go dad! 😂😂
This should be rewarded and guarded from company interference. sadly it seems one can only get ahead by "playing ball" i remember the china syndrome. Indeed "go Dad!"
Good for your dad for standing his ground. Pun intended.
Much respect to your dad!
A friend's dad got a Private Investigator put on him after he raised with his boss that his workplace demolished an Asbestos building without even warning a nearby town that was downwind. Corruption runs deep tbh.
Dad is a warrior!
If I see a big chunk of bridge has fallen down, what I am NOT going to do is stand right at the edge of the part that failed just so I can gawk.
This! Like really?!🤦🏿♀️
After this disaster, investigators found out that the Dangsan railway bridge (also on the Han River) was also poorly built. Some subway drivers complained when they passed Dangsan Railway Bridge that the subway shook too big. Investigators found out that the Dangsan railway bridge was so poorly built that it could have collapsed before the Seongsu bridge. And subways passing through Dangsan Bridge are filled with a lot of people (almost 2000 people). (That's still the case today.).
After they found out about this problem, they demolished the Dangsan Bridge and rebuilt it. If they ignored this problem or Dangsan Bridge collapsed first, huge catastrophes that would kill nearly 2,000 people would happen.
yeah, this was a warning all right. O-o'
I would imagine that your chances of escaping a submerged railway car after collapse would also be highly unlikely. My guess is that very few would have survived if that had happened!
This and sampoong fixed construction and there should be no more stupid ferry accidents
As a resident of Minnesota who was on the 35W bridge about 5 minutes before it collapsed.. I was sitting on the bridge over the Mississippi River for at least 3 minutes due to traffic... It was only a few minutes after I finally crossed over that it collapsed... This whole story was eerily similar. Gusset plates that were too thin, construction from the late 1960s, Not estimating that It would be a major bridge connecting the north and south, years of neglect, years of adding deicing chemicals...
😢
I was scrolling down knowing someone else had made the same connection. "Eerily similar" was my exact thought.
Not really 35W bridge was an engineering design failure. And it saw it's fair share of upgrades like the deice system which added lots of weight to the already underengineered bridge. The gusset plates called for in the original plans were way too thin.
My grandfather drove your bus at that time. He was scheduled to be on that bridge when it collapsed but he was running a few minutes behind. He was pretty happy he had passengers that were not getting up in the morning and ready on time that day.
A new bridge most likely wouldn't survive this hit that ship look very heavy ugh 😢
We often tend to take the safety of bridges for granted. It's almost unbelievable how safe they are, given that there's tens of thousands of bridges all across the USA, and it's rare that one collapses, considering the amount of weight and traffic they are repeatedly subjected to (along with the elements, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.). I once heard an engineer say that they are supposed to calculate the maximum load (weight), then engineer it to withstand ten times that.
"Bugger, I should have got my bingo card out already" made me crack up.
hey plainly, just wanted to say as someone who is getting a degree in engineering that i really value your work. its really important that these situations are brought to light and are kept in the mindset. each of these scenarios has important lessons to learn, and these videos provide a really valueble service. thank you
He's called John.
I'm reminded of a bridge disaster that I experienced back in 1989. The bridge in question was the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge which connects Seattle to the east side of Lake Washington. One morning, during rush hour, the lift span opened, without lights or barricades, presenting the traffic with a five-foot tall wall of concrete in the middle of the roadway!
The proximate cause was an electrical short circuit but the underlying cause was complacency. For the previous 18 years, the bridge operators had been performing a "dry run" of the lift mechanism every Friday morning. They did this without stopping traffic, so no one would be inconvenienced. The dry run would exercise the motors and the gearing, but a safety mechanism would keep the actual lift span disconnected from the rest of the mechanicals.
Until it didn't.
After the incident, they began doing their dry runs during periods of low traffic and they would lower the barricades.
This is probably just a blip as far as disasters go. There was one fatality and about half a dozen injuries. My involvement, fortunately, was limited to being stuck in unmoving traffic for a couple of hours.
The moral of the story is that safety mechanisms are very good things to have but don't depend on them. They are your very last line of defense.
A note on units. An imperial ton is very slightly larger than a metric tonne but for practical purposes they are identical. The metric tonne is what is now used in the UK. It is not the same as a US ton - it is unlikely that a US newspaper would ever quote imperial ton measurements as they are obsolete and were never used in Korea or the US. Countries like Canada and Australia did use them historically, of course.
The spread is only 108 kilograms between a short ton, imperial ton, and metric tonne.
Yeah, I like remembering "close enough" unit conversions, and I really like that I don't have to remember any numbers for the ton.
@@IstasPumaNevada Generally, if you're measuring with a unit that large, good enough is exactly that unless being more precise is critical. More so for the builders than the talkers in the comments, but it appears we're officially more worried about load numbers than the builders, tragically.
You can’t have cheap, fast and,good all at the same time. If you want it cheap and fast, it won’t be good. If you want it good and fast, it won’t be cheap. And if you want it cheap and good, it won’t be fast.
I tell clients this all the time. And I'm a *tailor!*
Kinda reminds me of the man repairing the ship with one blow of the hammer and charging $1,000. Anyone could hit it with a hammer, but he's the one with the knowledge of where to hit it. Now that I typed that I'm not sure if it makes sense to other people; I'm not entirely lucid
@@RT-qd8yl Now I'm curious about what ship this was, and what the circumstances were! It sounds like a great story.
@@RT-qd8ylAre you sure it was a ship? Could it have been a computer?
This is heisenburg's uncertainty principle from particle physics applied to real life. Maybe more things follow that rationale
In addition to this and the Sampoong department store collapse, around the same time an apartment building under construction also collapsed. While that one had no fatalities or injuries, it probably terrified people more since it meant you weren't safe even in your own home. Those three really got Koreans to demand better safety standards and to clean up corruption between the construction industry and government. (It was common to just bribe the inspector instead actually bothering to pass inspection, or to bribe the official to get building plans approved.)
You could do an entire channel just focusing on Seoul engineering & city planning disasters. Their post war expansion has caused so many ripple effects & more disasters are just hiding waiting to happen. Its so scary
I think the that a lot of people don't necessarily realize why that is, that after the war, South Korea pushed very hard to catch up with the rest of the developed world, and consequently the incentive to skip safety steps and meet/beat deadlines was high.
Almost all buildings and infrastructure still standing in Seoul today have been built since the 90s for this exact reason. As the country’s financial situation improved, they tore down nearly everything and built new, hopefully with better standards.
A year after the Seongsu bridge collapse, the Sampoong mall collapsed killing 502 people and injuring nearly 1000. Another case of safety standards being overlooked in the name of profit
It is so nice of you to show the credits in Korean. My friend witnessed this incident. He told me about it a while back. It was a well constructed master piece from you again. Thank you so much.
You should do some videos on some of the NYC subway crashes (Malbone St, Union Sq, Williamsburg Bridge crashes). The system itself is something interesting to look over as well.
That would be interesting, I heard they have had to change it yet again because of the constant non-payment of fares by so many.
@@nbrown5907 really, instead of raising rates on the daily commuters, they should be raising taxes on those who live in penthouses in Manhattan.
@@nbrown5907 They are changing the entry gate system because of that, but what I am talking about is how the subway and track system itself operates. It is the only 24 hour subway system with full-time dedicated express services and the tracks are laid out in a way that you can play mix services around in case part of it gets jammed up.
Quick and cheap? This will always work great!
Absolutely! Even when doing custom work as a tailor and leatherworker, I tell clients that they can have things done quickly, cheaply, well, or any combination of the two, but all three are impossible. And in some cases, doing it either quickly or cheaply just isn't an option.
China: *slowly hides in the bushes*
As an artist/artisan, I can definitely do quick & cheap, but you wont like the end result.. and you wont believe the amount of clients who initially wants this. Ikea is for quick & cheap!
Fast, cheap, high quality.
Pick 2.
@@janemiettinen5176 I try to warn people who want fast and cheap that although I'll do my best, their end product will probably look fast and cheap, and have next to no lifespan, but in our current culture where everything is disposable? Why are they even getting potentially high-quality custom work done in the first place if they don't want the best I can do?
I'd add "Overly Confident Officials" too.... i'm sure you said towards the beginning that they weren't to concerned about inspections as it was a new structure.
And also "Easily Preventable".... if they did the job right first time round they would not be having to build a new bridge.
_Very_ fine line between "overly confident" and "willfully ignorant" there...
You could also interpret that as 'Engineering decisions being made by non-engineers'.
"Time Pressure" as well, since the _entire point_ was that they wanted it Fast and Cheap, and didn't care if that meant it wasn't Good.
Being recommended this after yesterday is strange.
No that's how algorithms work. Lots of interest in bridges means more bridge content being pushed
"Full penetration welds? How about just the tip?"
5:10 to add salt to the wound that was a nice one
7:40 dude that was a really shallow river they got lucky it was not rainy season
With the structure being built quickly and cheaply, the lack of maintenance, the increased usage, and it being rush hour, I'm amazed the number of casualties wasn't higher!
As for the bingo card, I'd add time pressure (to build quickly), overly confident officials, recently inspected (a woefully inadequate repair was made the previous day), and easily preventable.
The fact that during construction, the weld inspector was fired for *doing his job* really says all you need to know about that company's building standards.
It says it all. I routinely deliver goods to the Great Belt consortium in Denmark. They are responsible for the maintenance of the 2 bridges (the high bridge on the east side of the belt, and the low bridge on the west) spanning the entire belt. I usually deliver at a point directly beneath the first section of the high bridge where it protrudes from the anchoring points on the shore. And no matter when I arrive there, there is always at least a dozen men working there (meaning that I will maybe see 2 or 3 while the rest are inside the construction somewhere doing their work). They even have a fixed and permanent compound to house everything they need when working and quarters to relax in while on a break. So it's a fairly lucrative and permanent contract for any contractor to have. And the Øresound bridge between Denmark and Sweden has the same team and compound already working there daily despite being very young in terms of construction age.
It's pretty cool that you did this video and you've really explained more of the engineering in this bridge. Rotten Mango recently did a podcast about this bridge last week, so it's good to have more information about the disaster.
Good video. I like how they let reporters stand at the edge of a proven unstable structure. Safety, what's that?
Nah. Not that dangerous. For one thing, no heavy traffic was moving on the bridge anymore, for obvious reasons. Secondly, a lot of weight on the remaining structure had been removed when the 48 meter section tore loose and fell. And finally, the weight of these reporters didn't even amount combined to the average weight of a common van.
The real danger to these reporters would be their own courage or lack thereof. The closer they would move to the ragged edges of the remaining section, the greater the danger of one of them loosing his balance and falling over the edge.
@@Jens-Viper-Nobel It's dangerous because you don't know what other damage may have been caused. Safety means don't take unnecessary risks.
@@ShawnHCorey I am well aware of that problem. I'm a navy guy, and we are permanently based right next to the local railway bridge which was originally constructed as an opening bridge to allow passage of ships such as our own naval vessel. It was closed down years ago because it was rammed by a ship that lost engine control. The damage that was visual amounted to mere scratches in the paint work as the ship was making a 180 degree turn some 50 meters from it when it lost the engine and rammed it broadside, meaning that it had the impact spread along the whole length of the ship at low speed (3 knots). Yet there was some minor damage to the swivelling construction that would raise the bridge section, so the authorities decided to close it permanently for safety reasons. I was on the team inspecting the swivel because they used our naval vessel to make a closer inspection of the outside damages and then was used to make light for them within the bridge where lights were present, but not so strong as to allow a good visibility on details. I of course didn't understand all the tech goppledegook they were speaking, but I did manage to find out that the only real damage to the swivel was actually a rod that was bent visibly and a hinge on the other side showing cracks as a result of the collision. Something that should have been easily replaced with new and better, more durable parts within a week or 2. The bridge sections hadn't even been misaligned relative to each other. Yet it was considered grave enough to be a real danger in the future, so they decided to close it permanently and make it a part of the overall plan of building the new railroad/car bridge construction about to start on the other side of the island and spanning a total reconstruction of the railroad net ranging from Ringsted to Rødby and the Fehmern Belt tunnel currently under construction.
It's not so much to make the permanent closure a part of the greater railroad scheme that is important here. It is the fact that something that could safely be repaired in the span of 2 weeks still caused them to consider it an extreme danger despite the bridge naturally not opening or closing in those 2 weeks. And I know that the rest of the construction was still sound even at the point of collision because they brought an x-ray scanner and went over every bit of the bridge, including the sections not affected by the collision, and all the scannings showed no damage on the surface or within on the various instruments and construction parts and machiney other than the ones mentioned. So these guys took security extremely serious. But I wrote as I did on the reply because one of the engineers on the case is an aquaintence living just a few houses down from my own, and he used this bridge collaps as one of his stories to make a point on matters of bridge security, and he was the one who told me that despite there almost certainly having been spars and joints damaged directly beneath where they were standing near the edge, the group of reporters represented very little to none in terms of hazard to the remaining strength of the remaining part of that section. Had they driven auto cranes out there to salvage anything from the fallen section, you wouldn't have caught him anywhere near that bridge because he wouldn't want to see more casualties in that disaster.
@@Jens-Viper-Nobel "Dangerous!? What? No, I'm lighter than a car so I'll be fine."
@@Asylar343 You still fall with the same speed as a car.
Quite honestly. Why is nobody considering that the first thing after the disaster, some structural engineer is out there checking the state of the remaining structure since first responders and later salvage crews and investigators need to work just below? I'm pretty sure that he was the one who told everybody that it was safe to stand there in terms of the human weight. Just like the structural engineers could report the bridge safe as long as you didn't try to open it when I saw them work.
The Japanese recruited to oversee the welding was fired for insisting on inspecting every weld
Yeah I also watched the video
Just like the whistleblower from the shoddy submarine Oceangate Titan
Howzabout a spoiler alert, there, chief?
Yeah, feels like they wanted to hire someone to blame if (when) things went south. Had he complied to not inspect everything, I'm 100% sure they would've thrown the inspector under the bus, getting away even more easily themselves.
Wouldn't have changed much if he did inspect them, the bridge was a poor design, was never maintained, outdated and always over capacity.
I like the way you refer to your source material at the relevant places. Keep it going, you are one of my fave channels!
Oh, gosh, I lived south of the bridge when I was young... like, really young (read: I was 2 at the time), and my dad used to use the bridge to commute to and from work everyday. That day, though, my parents said he'd taken the day off to take my mom and me to a local park for a "picnic", and, so, he was at home. They saw the collapse via news and got super worried, as most people would have at the time.
My entire extended family (both parents' sides) called throughout the day to check if my dad was okay, since they had no idea that he'd takaen off that day.
I feel like our guardian angels were watching over our family that day 😊 thanks so much for covering a major tragedy from my country! ^u^
I clicked on this video soooo fast!! Plainly difficult! is one of my favorite RUclipsr!!..❤❤❤thank you so much! For taking the time,effort and energy to make us awesome videos I love learning about all the different nuances involved in these horrible and unfortunate accidents!… so sad that most of them could have been avoided altogether.
again thank you for walking us through everything that happened. Hope you and your family are doing fantastic!!❤
It's amazing how many plainly difficult things turn out to be *ornately* difficult when you take a closer look ...
just love those weather reports at the end of your videos
Good morning all! A new video from Plainly Difficult is a welcome start to my day.
If you're selling merch anyway, why not sell dry-erase ready versions of the bingo card? I'd love to have one of those
It's honestly kind of refreshing to know that people were actually charged and convicted in this situation. People and corporations get away with this kind of thing way too often, which is absolutely infuriating.
Look… if you started doing podcasts, I definitely would subscribe. You have the perfect voice and tone for falling asleep. (Sounds weird but I love it) plus the research behind your videos is amazing… I subscribe to a bunch of disaster podcasts but I love your dry humor and intelligence on whatever you talk about. Much love to you from Richmond Virginia, USA. Keep making amazing progress!
Sounds to me that u need some "drachinifel" in your life. Thats my go to "falling asleep" voice. Check him out and if his videos are something for you then u have a treasure trove with long videos and a calm voice with dry humor
@@terribleteddy I’ve never learned much about the Navy before so I’m definitely going to check it out. Thanks for the recommendation!
South Korea, people actually got arrested and charged.
What is this, bizarro world?
Scapegoats
It's... not the US, that's for sure.
Didn't matter much. Samsung who mission is overpriced and degraded parts on shiny products.
@@thing_under_the_stairs You are right, south korea is US on steroids and some heavy drugs.
Hope it was managers who made bad value trade-offs & not the salt-truck drivers.
I have to rewatch but I can fall asleep so well to your voice. Thank you.
I lived in Korea in 99. These bridges are long, the Han is wide and the water is dirty. Soul is beautiful. I ran across those bridges for PT.
Seoul
As long as you wear your PT belt the bridges will hold sturdy
. Absolutely love the content, thank you. Keeps my mind occupied while still being able to relax for a few.
Better, Faster, Cheaper can NEVER be done all at the same time.
Love the stickers. I'm not a sticker guy, but I love the foot-stomp bunnymen and their cast of usual suspects. But that is because of the humor you sometimes introduce around them (Me again??). Genius. What a fun brand! You are sold out of all merch, except for 8 sets of stickers. Well Done!
John, it's ironic that you posted this just before the Baltimore bridge collapse. Did you see it coming? Hope to see it one day as a posting on your channel....
Your videos help me stay motivated to become a better material science engineer everyday. In a industry where bosses constantly pressure you into cost-cuts, thai reminds why I would rather become unemployed than be an accomolice of such practices
Subscribed. Thank you John
I remember my great-uncle telling me him and his military unit during the Korean War fought a number of battles along the banks of the Han River.
I wonder if that Japanese inspector ended up being a witness for the prosecution or if the fact that he had been fired for wanting to inspect every weld came to light and was used in the prosecution.
I have lived in South Korea for 25 years and I don’t think attitudes towards safety have improved that much.
oh my god i love you for pronouncing 'advertisement' correctly
That is always the problem of wanting to modernize a country so quickly, the bad thing is that the price is not paid by the government or companies, but by the civilians
And to top it off, you lose the bridge anyway.
My concern is that modern China has been building infrastructure very quickly, and rumours circulate about 'short cuts' and corruption.
This disaster could happen in China in a few years.
As if it wasn't already happening everywhere in China
it's been happening on and off already. One of the main contributors to the large loss of life in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake was attributed to the poor construction quality that led to many buildings collapsing, particularly those built in the last 30 years or so (20ish years at that point) Many older buildings withstood the earthquake, while pretty much every building that was younger suffered total collapse or severe damage. There have been many highway, building and bridge collapses ever since.
I think they even call some concrete in China "tofu concrete" because of how poorly it is made. Yikes
@WouldntULikeToKnow Yeah, “tofu dregs.” That South African guy has a channel criticizing China, he lived there for quite a while. I forget his name, but it’s worth watching.
@@apophisstr6719 --- At least 157 bridge collapses, not including the ones caused by earthquake, occurred in China from January 2000 to March 2012.
How about the only deadly accident at the Wuppertal monorail? A train sheared off of it's wheel gondola, and then the wheel gondola fell right after into the passenger filled shell...
Brilliance well researched
Thank you
Because of how often I'm listening to your videos instead of watching, I often forget to play the bingo game.
(Edit: Oh my word that outro music. 😍)
After this accident, the school zoning in Seoul was changed so students didn't have to cross the river to go to school.
Im always so excited to see a new vid!!! ❤
A segment of the Tappan Zee bridge in New York collapsed around 1995/96 when I was a senior in college. Oddly, I can't find anything about it searching on the web. A truck and some cars fell into the river. I did at least find one mention of the large truck that broke the side rail and went off the bridge into the Hudson River in 1992 (my freshman year in college). I was going to suggest the collapse for a video. Maybe you'll have better luck than me.
I saw a video about that a long time ago. I can’t remember who did it or where it came from. I am not sure if I can send you a link if I find it but now I wanna rewatch it!
I was so wrong. So the tappan zee never collapsed. It was demolished after the I 35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis brought light to the crumbling infrastructure. Apparently it just wasn’t up to code. That’s why they built the new one. I guess there was a crane collapse at some point. I definitely realized that I got mixed up as well. The sunshine skyway bridge in Florida is a rabbit hole if you are into bridge collapse stuff. Much love from Richmond Virginia, USA. Hope you have a great evening!
@@rocknrollnichole1071 Thanks for looking. I distinctly remember a section of the bridge (westbound) fell suddenly in the 1990s, killing some people. I, too, can only find info on the crane collapse during construction of the replacement bridge. This is going bother me. lol
@@New_Wave_Nancy yeah, I was thinking about it today as well. If I learn anything new about it I’ll be sure to follow up!
Great video! ❤️ Also, for anybody interested in a longer detailed vid on this case- I HIGHLY recommend Rotten Mango’s videos on both this bridge and the Sampoong mall collapse, she’s very interesting to listen to with lots of facts and photos as well 🙂👍
Excellent work, as always.
Another great video. I love your channel and your content. Thanks ❤
I also had "easily preventable" & "overly confident official" on the bingo card.
I always look forward to a video from you 👍
Reminds me of neglect of the Silver Bridge up until it collapsed.
wind flapper
Love this channel.
Lovely to hear Dong Ah mentioned. 40 years ago I worked on the Saudi Arabia TEP4 contract where Dong Ah had a JV with Bin Laden Construction to build many of the new telecommunications buildings needed to house all the telephone exchanges. #goodolddays
Good morning John 🙏 🌄
Is there a ranking list of the disaster scale somewhere?
Very similar to 35w bridge collapse in Minneapolis.
Another great video,thank you sir.
Mad respect for those police officers who survived their own near death and immediately started helping others. I think that goes above and beyond.
Thank you John🤘
John? It's tRICKy here! Those stickers, they're fantastic! They could be even more so if they were fantastically to magically reappear reborn as fridge magnets, wha'd'a ya' say? Again, admire alll your work, it's to be greatly commended! Make it even more fantastRICKy?
I mean, stickers are just permanent fridge magnets
Well, if he never releases them you could always DIY with a magnetic sheet and the stickers..
@@GranRey-0 yep, easily done. I used to take dog picture cutouts and apply magnetic backing (eBay) to share with other dog lovers. Still have several on my own fridge.
Talking of collapsing bridges, Tjörnbron in Sweden is definitely an interesting subject.
Maybe, just maybe, you could do this one, out of your comfort zone: Lauda’s crash at Nordschleife ‘76. Some, me included, think something broke on his suspension, but Ferrari’d never admit it. The footage suggests it, though. Worth a try.
Then there’s his recovery and the abandoning of this legendary track over safety. It’s been covered lots of times, there’s the movie, but I’d very much like to see your take on it.
Wish you went into more detail into the fatigue cracking. Really interested in learning what different failures looks like
Thanks John 😀
7:45 - fallen bridge section was like "someone's gotta help Korean disaster victims cause the gov't never will"
God bless you John but the circus sounding music at the start always gives me anxiety which makes sleep harder :(
why is there a checkerboard thing in the top right every so and then?
Have you done one on the 1982 Cline Ave Bridge accident in Indiana? 14 workers died when a section collapsed while under construction.
The full video over at Rotten Mango on this story was brilliant
plainly difficult always coming in clutch when I need something to watch while I eat
Thanks John 😊
that was one interresting story keep up the good quality
On the card I'd also mark time pressure, overly confident officials (in assuming the plate fixed things), easily preventable (if there were proper inspections)... and if we're technical, fatigue (in this case, metal fatigue :p ).
Yeah I think the Washington Bridge in Providence, RI is about to have this happen…
You should never cut corners on a construction job ever! Faulty or shoddy work can eventually weaken a structure to the point of failure, and there is no excuse for it!😡
It's way too common for bridges to collapse from neglect that could have easily been spotted if they would just send a single engineer to look at it. Bolts that connect beams are guaranteed to come out over time from the vibrations of cars crossing the bridge. Deicing is also super corrosive you think anyone that lives where it snows would just know that.
You wouldn't catch me peering over the edge of a collapsed bridge. Those people had zero sense.
You missed fatigue (metal), "recently inspected" (as questionable repairs were carried out), overly confident officials (some did jail. Result!) and easily preventable - with the inspections that were requested during construction (but instead fired the engineer requesting them), and better overall inspections including better and more frequent checks with the doubled traffic volume...
@ 12:09 i'll add "Time pressure"
5:27 Thanks a bunch for putting the theme to Eastenders in my head.
The fast, good, cheap conundrum. In this case, when you go fast and cheap, it isn't any good.
I helped inspect this bridge I remember being fired because I wanted to inspect all the welds I couldn’t believe it!
well, huh....thx muchy for another upload
🇨🇦 😁
Nice to hear people were held accountable!
Is the "Fatigue" bingo square for metal fatigue, or human exhaustion?
Either or!
Since mismangent are consistent factors in all you videos I am mainly discounting that. The loss of life was severe and the inconvenience to the residents was huge so I give it 6.
Good morning. Our northern friends tonght I see. Cheers from the hot & humid edge of Chevron Island.
I was confused when this popped back up in my suggestions as I watched it when it came out, I guess today's news might be uptrafficing bridge disasters in the algorithm. Devastating what happened, I hope the investigation is through, swift, and results in plainly evident cause to either ensure doesn't occur again, or allows the family's to pursue any negligent party
Highly recommend Stephanie soo’s video for a more in depth story
During the title sequence when Plainly Difficult is zooming into the foreground, are you doing a treatment to the video to make it look like a 70s disaster flick? I get that impression and love it but it may be my mind superimposing that. 😊