Posted on 01/11/2014 4:44:49 PM PST by DeaconBenjamin
The grand opening of Chile's first ever drawbridge has been delayed after it emerged at least one traffic deck had been installed upside down. Now the country's president is blaming the project's Spanish developer for the mistake.
The $30-million (€22-million) drawbridge project was supposed to open this month, and become an instant landmark connecting Valdivia with Teja island by bridging the Cau Cau River.
But it has ended up a laughing stock in local social media, as Chileans wondered how construction workers managed to mess up something as seemingly clear as up and down.
Twitter users in Chile have parodied the building error with (fake) images like the one in the tweet below:
Problemas con la instalación de nuevo puente en Valdivia. Los quiero mucho. pic.twitter.com/g3g0UJKHmf — Ed (@edbvd) January 6, 2014
The fail has also got President Sebastián Piñera a bit defensive. "It can be fixed, ... and it will be fixed by the company that made the mistake," Pinera said dropping the ball in the court of Spanish infrastructure builders Azvi.
Inspectors getting ready for opening day found that either one or two of the traffic decks were installed backwards, authorities said.
"The only responsible party is the builder. We are going to make them answer for this," Public Works Minister Loreto Silva.
A spokesperson from Andalusia-based Azvi company told The Local the company was now reviewing information provided by Silva's department.
As yet, no new opening date for the bridge has been announced.
Valdivia, 840 kilometers (520 miles) south of sprawling Santiago, is home to about 125,000 people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5bG2JSC6RU
A video showing how the Valdivia drawbridge should actually operate.
January has not been a good month for Spanish developers in Latin America. Spain's infrastructure giant Sacyr — part of a consortium contracted to expand the Panama Canal to accommodate new super container ships — is currently embroiled in a costs row with the Panama Canal Authority.
The two parties are in negotiations over who will pay for cost overruns.
Spain's Public Works minister flew to Panama for emergency talks in a spat that threatens the future of the critical project.
Didn’t Spain just build submarines that could not go to sea?
Having worked with many nationalities, the only ones I would trust with a bridge would be the Germans.
The company I worked for, contracted to manage a newly built hotel in Puerto Vallarta, Mex, where the builder forgot the 2nd floor, where all of the offices were to be located.. I got down there only to discover the problem..
Another hotel in Guatemala, decided to put a swimming pool on the roof, after the property was finished with construction, but before it opened.. The pool construction went ok, but when they started to fill the pool, the roof floor collapsed, alerting everyone to escape in time to watch the building come down in a pile of rubble.. LOL
This thread is useless without pictures.
In Baltimore, they are building an express toll road parallel to the highway (idiots) It looks like something got really screwed up. Suddenly, a section that appeared done suddenly had huge cranes and equally huge holes dug in the fresh asphalt.
No word on why.
CGI Federal wins yet another major contract.
Years ago, an old guy owned an empty lot across from his house. The city decided to build a new firehouse, and this looked like a good place. It had been vacant for many years.
The old guy watched day after day until the firehouse was up and running.
Then he went to the city and said, ‘That’s my lot’. I don’t know how it ended. It was east coast, so probably not good for the old man.
Where is your imagination? You picture things in your head. Maybe they don't teach that in public schools just look at your phone. geese.
I had to read it to find out what was in it :)
Thanks!
“Ted Kennedy, paging Ted Kennedy. You’re wanted on the Bridge Help Line.”
Oh, my. Your description of your town’s main road construction is the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time!
Misleading title. Upside down, no! misaligned, yep.
There are elevated aqueducts that ‘Italians’ built in France and Britain almost 2000 years ago that are still standing.
Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown is going to want one of those now.
Saw a few hundred trees lining a boulevard in Italy. Every other one was dead. I asked a local and he said, “The workers planted every other tree sapling upside down in the hope they would be called back to replant the dead ones.”
The govt decided that the trees were OK more widely spaced and didn’t bother to tear out the dead ones to spite the workers, who were locals.
>> “Didn’t Spain just build submarines that could not go to sea?” <<
.
What, did they shrink when they got wet?
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