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.
No, they could not submerge.
The misalignment photo is fake, as noted in the article.
No, it was warm weather when they built them so they installed screen doors.
Show me on google maps.
Italy is home to some of the best and biggest bridge fabricators in the world. I have visited most of them. Italian fabricators are amazing.
Doesn’t pass the smell test. A lot of things need to go wrong to build a bridge upside down. I assume they are referring to the deck of the bridge.
It’s a new kind of bridge called an “Over Under Bridge”.
I’ve been looking for a picture of this upside down bridge but I can’t seem to find one.
Please post pictures of the streets in your town or direct us to where we can see them. How long have the streets been like this?
I went to school in Italy and have every respect for the Italians- I am half Sicilian, by the way.
I did speak too quickly. I just admire the Germans I worked with- the Italians and French were more interested in eating, drinking molto vino and their mistresses.
So when it gets flushed it rotates the other way? Now I get it!
This was back in the late 80s or early 90s and I haven’t been through there in years.
Looking at it in google street view it still looks a little odd there. (Horton Michigan, corner of Moscow Rd and Baldwin st)
...and bathroom faucets.
Phhht!
They can't hold a candle to the fabrications coming out of Obama's mouth!
“Inspectors getting ready for opening day found that either one or two of the traffic decks were installed backwards, authorities said.”
So is it backwards or upside down? Sounds like the construction company isn’t the only one confused....
Those were the Romans. Not exactly modern Italians.
The Ancient Egyptians built the pyramids, you think the current group could build anything?
LOL
Sound familiar?
It's not just Obama's regime that is incompetent. All unbridled governments tend in that direction.
Having been involved in a few heavy construction projects, without exception, the contracting entity always had an adequate, experienced and competent group of inspectors, in all disciplines, ensuring that construction took place according to the plans and specifications.
To wash their hands of all responsibility is the epitome of bureaucratic incompetence!
Yes, in fact you are absolutly correct, it does go
the other way below the equator due to the earths
rotation.
Learn something new everyday on FR.
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