There is nothing more terrifying than the thought of a badly made building or bridge, especially when our lives literally depend on them at some point in our life. We’d like to think that because they are constructed by professionals they are safe, but unfortunately, this is not always the case. Small mistakes or oversights can have some devastating consequences in the world of construction. Let’s take a look at some of the worst construction disasters in history.
Source: Boltbuzz
5. Sampoong Department Store in South Korea
When work initially began on the Sampoong Department Store in Seoul in 1987, it was to be an apartment building, however, developers decided it would be better as a department store. This ultimately meant that certain support columns would have to be left out for escalators on top of developers wanting to add a fifth floor. The building companies that refused to make the changes, because they recognised how unsafe they would be, were fired by the developers. The store then opened in 1990, attracting around 40 000 visitors each day. By April of 1995, the 5th-floor ceiling began to show cracks and the entire floor was closed. However, in June 1995 the entire south wing collapsed and killed 502 people, leaving a whopping 1500 people injured and securing the Sampoong Department disaster as one of the deadliest building collapses the world has ever seen.
Source: Boltbuzz
4. Quebec City Bridge
An engineer working on the Quebec City Bridge in 1907 mentioned that the frame appeared to be bending, but was told that the beams must have been bent before being installed so it wasn’t a major issue. Unfortunately, he was right and the bridge collapsed, killing 75 workers. This was due to the fact that it weighed 8 million pounds more than it should have and the beams simply could not support the weight – which is crazy considering an engineer raised concerns.
Source: Boltbuzz
3. Willow Island Cooling Tower
1978 saw one of the biggest construction accidents in the history of the United States when the Willow Island power plant collapsed in West Virginia, knocking over a scaffolding tower and killing 51 workers. The collapse is said to have been caused by negligence that was brought about by the panic of being behind schedule. Apparently, numerous shortcut that led to the collapse included scaffolding being attached to concrete that hadn’t quite set, using old or incorrect bolts and a using an unauthorised hoisting system – a tribute to the importance of safety in construction.
Source: Boltbuzz
2. Teton Dam
The federal government built an earthen dam in Southeastern Idaho and in June 1976 workers noticed a minor leak but didn’t think anything of it. The leak then began to grow and efforts were put forth to repair it, but it was much too late. At 11.55 am on the 5th of June the dam burst and sent a whopping 2 000 000 cubic feet of water into the Teton River Canyon every second. The accident took the lives of 11 people and 13 000 cows and caused close to $2 billion in damages.
Source: Boltbuzz
1. Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse
The walkways at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City collapsed in 1981, they fell 4 floors and unfortunately onto a dancing competition that was being held in the lobby, killing 114 people and injuring as many as 200. Up until the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, this was considered one of the US’s deadliest structural collapses. Investigations showed that changes made to one of the walkways meant the support beams and tie rods had to hold the weight of the 2nd and 4th-floor walkways.
There is no doubt that mistakes made in construction can have deadly consequences, from the design right down to the various construction consumables used. For quality in construction, visit our Matsol, Contractsol and Safesol divisions.
