# Massive bridge collapse in China **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 11, 2025, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791 "2025-11-11T20:59:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2025, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/1 "2025-11-11T20:59:16Z")
The bridge was opened just a few months ago, but was recently closes due to recent landslides. After you watch the video, you will note the irony of this statement: > “Currently, there is no estimated timeline for the reopening of the highway.” > **[Bridge in China collapses months after construction finished](https://www.newsweek.com/hongqi-bridge-in-china-collapses-months-after-construction-finished-11028950)** > > Video shows the Hongqi Bridge collapsing into the river after cracks were found in nearby slopes and roads. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2025, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/2 "2025-11-11T21:20:40Z")
Oops. Geotechnical engineering is about ensuring the terrain under your project can support it, and the terrain uphill from your project won’t landslide down onto it. It’s part art, but it’s mostly well understood science and has been for 50+ years. If the engineers do the work diligently and the managing architects accept any bad news when it’s delivered, then alter their plans accordingly. As the article says, China has rather a lot of these sorts of “bad luck acts of Nature” compared to many other countries. Speaking at a more meta level … China is ruggedly mountainous and prone to amazing amounts of rain. Suggesting unstable terrain is rather common. AGW will almost certainly make flooding and landslides worse. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2025, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/3 "2025-11-11T21:30:15Z")
Although these things happen occasionally, even in the US, it still surprises me considering it was a relatively new bridge. I would expect something like this to happen in North Korea, not in China. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2025, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/4 "2025-11-11T21:40:37Z")
There have been two other bridge collapses in China this year, most recently [in August](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-bridge-collapse-yellow-river-video-state-media-say-6-deaths/). ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2025, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/5 "2025-11-11T21:42:55Z")
That really surprises me. Maybe it shouldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/6 "2025-11-12T00:11:44Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > There have been two other bridge collapses in China this year, most recently [i](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-bridge-collapse-yellow-river-video-state-media-say-6-deaths/) A bunch of people were _already_ unhappy about the quality of Chinese new builds. If anything, I expect the public reaction to be “meh – business as usual”. On the other hand, Beijing has been centralizing power, and cracking down on historic (long past) corruption in order to do so. I’d expect more senior party members in the construction company to be clearing their desks. That August collapse was a classic collapse-in-construction, but I spent a lot of time looking at it, trying to figure out how the bridge was supposed to work when completed. There’s never any engineering details in the news ☹ I always wonder if that kind of bridge is a “bowstring” bridge, or if it’s really a box-arch with a suspended roadway, and the horizontal members are just for stiffness. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/7 "2025-11-12T01:22:20Z")
Something which hasn’t been mentioned yet is that the reservoir is also new and they are still in the process of filling it. So things were OK when they started construction but they didn’t realize how much the water from the reservoir would spread and weaken the mountain. > China has entered the final phase of a major renewable energy project as the Shuangjiangkou dam in Sichuan province began storing water on May 1, newswires have reported. > **[China’s Shuangjiangkou dam begins water storage, set to become tallest...](https://www.waterpowermagazine.com/news/chinas-shuangjiangkou-dam-begins-water-storage-set-to-become-tallest-for-now/)** > > China has entered the final phase of a major renewable energy project as the Shuangjiangkou dam in Sichuan province began storing water ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/8 "2025-11-12T02:23:29Z")
All of that stuff is reasonably model-able / predictable. _If_ TPTB are willing to listen to engineering advice that says this plan won’t work unless / until modified to account for [whatever] natural shortcoming in the worksite Which willingness I’m going to bet is utterly lacking in most of China. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/9 "2025-11-12T04:40:55Z")
In Chinese there is this idiom “[偷工减料](https://www.omgchinese.com/dictionary/chinese/%E5%81%B7%E5%B7%A5%E5%87%8F%E6%96%99)”, which literally means “stealing/skimping on labor and subtracting materials”, ie cutting corners specifically on construction projects. I don’t know if there is a direct English translation. “Shoddy workmanship” would be close, except the Chinese one specifically applies to construction projects and not general craftsmanship – it happened so frequently that the phrase was a specific and popular shorthand. in Taiwan at least, people would just throw their hands up and say that whenever a building fell after a typhoon or earthquake. Wonder if it’s still a widespread phenomenon in greater China? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/10 "2025-11-12T05:12:52Z")
Will anyone be surprised if there are executions in the near future, just as there were over the tainted baby formula scandal in 2009? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/11 "2025-11-12T05:45:50Z")
Taiwan has more of a problem with “_chabuduo_” culture (“Eh, close enough”) than outright theft/fraud. The attitude that eventually leads to gas pipes exploding, buildings being crappy and stuff falling down. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/12 "2025-11-12T06:08:31Z")
I’m assuming that AGW means anthropogenic global warming? It did when I Googled it, anyway. That video was quite interesting, that’s for sure. ---
**Author:** ![PlaceboTarget](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/placebotarget/32/1073_2.png) [@PlaceboTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlaceboTarget)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/13 "2025-11-12T06:23:50Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Wonder if it’s still a widespread phenomenon in greater China? Faulty bridges and dams in communist countries are usually the result of megalomaniac projects where the establishment forcefully turns specialists into yes-men who end up endorsing unrealistic solutions, especially when they’re young and ambitious. This can happen under any authoritarian rule, but I’m more familiar with these kinds of communist “achievements.” ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2025, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/14 "2025-11-14T00:28:09Z")
Communist China has had a long-term problem of corruption _mixed_ with power politics. So the “yes men” are rushing to get things through on schedule while paying off the administration at all levels. But taking away the details, it looks to me like what Orwell wrote: ““The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which”. We had a bridge failure in Melbourne while they were rushing to get the two sides connected (like the Chinese bridge I mentioned above). Italy had a massive dam failure where the geo-physics wasn’t correct (like this road failure). The Twin Towers failed faster than expected because of cost-cutting. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/15 "2025-11-15T19:54:53Z")
In fairness - not to turn this into yet another 9/11 thread, but - the Twin Towers suffered a catastrophic event that nobody would reasonably have considered to be part of the expected structural life when building a skyscraper. ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2025, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/16 "2025-11-16T00:51:17Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > The Twin Towers failed faster than expected because of cost-cutting. That ridiculous statement undermines everything else in your post. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2025, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/17 "2025-11-16T01:15:39Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > The Twin Towers failed faster than expected because of cost-cutting. Are you &$%# SERIOUS? How in the HELL does “cost-cutting” account for the inability of a tower to withstand an airliner weighing _at least_ 177 THOUSAND pounds hitting at ca. 500mph, which I cannot imagine any architect or engineer at the time those towers were built would have even imagined would be likely enough to happen that they needed to consider that in the design and construction? ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2025, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/18 "2025-11-16T01:18:38Z")
California had a massive collapse in 1928 > **[St. Francis Dam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Francis_Dam)** > > The St. Francis Dam, or the San Francisquito Dam, was a concrete gravity-arch dam located in San Francisquito Canyon in northern Los Angeles County, California, United States, that was built between 1924 and 1926. The dam failed catastrophically in 1928, killing at least 431 people in the subsequent flood, in what is considered to have been one of the worst American civil engineering disasters of the 20th century and the third-greatest loss of life in California history. > The dam was built to ... They still named a road after the guy who was responsible. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2025, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/19 "2025-11-16T22:29:01Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > n fairness - not to turn this into yet another 9/11 thread, but - the Twin Towers suffered a catastrophic event that nobody would reasonably have considered to be part of the expected structural life when building a skyscraper. In fairness, I made an assertion about the _timeline of failure_, not about the cause of failure. I see that some other people have failed to understand that distinction. Perhaps I should have expected that. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2025, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791/20 "2025-11-16T22:39:30Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > I made an assertion about the _timeline of failure_, not about the cause of failure. So you are saying that, at some point in the future, the Twin Towers would have failed and collapsed? And that failure was only hastened by the 9/11 assholes? I’m not buying that assertion. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-bridge-collapse-in-china/1024791.md?page=2)