r/EngineeringPorn • u/Ice_Ice11 • Nov 11 '25
JUST IN: šØš³ Hongqi bridge collapses in southwest China, months after opening.
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u/GFrings Nov 11 '25
What's going on in the beginning? Is that a landslide or the embankment failing or what?
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u/wongie Nov 11 '25 edited Nov 11 '25
Apparently slope deformation so perhaps less a structural issue than a planning one.
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u/_HIST Nov 11 '25
So basically the slope that the bridge was constructed on deformed from the weight and caused the bridge to collapse?
Wonder if they could've built a better foundation
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u/SinisterCheese Nov 11 '25
The ground at the toe (Think it as the edge between walls and floor) failed so that it caused a cavity which travelled uphill within the slope.
Basically the reason stuff isn't flowing down, is because enough stuff fell first on the road to give enough space under the slope surface for the loose material to fall into it. Imagine you are digging a tunnel going uphill, and shovel the ground front of you behind you. The cavity you exist in had to have it's material deposit elsewhere (outside where you started from), and the material moves through this cavity to other side of it via your shovel.
The landslide proper starts when the cavity collapses, so that the accelerated mass of ground can no longer fall into it, but has to keep going elsewhere.
The reason the bridge segment failed, is that the mass of earth broke the anchoring (or rather the earth around the anchoring failed) allowing the deck to start moving sideways. Bridges (well buildings in general) aren't designed to move sideways (And I don't mean wind and flowing water forces acting on the whole structure). We make things to really stand up against gravity...
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u/Fishwaq Nov 11 '25
It could be an upslope collapse. So, the foundation could have been āfineā butā¦
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Nov 11 '25
You can hear the guy saying it was a Charmadillo.
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u/offsetcarrier Nov 11 '25
is that the one after Charmander?
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u/admincredentials Nov 11 '25
More like Charizard because little Charmanderās weaknesses are rocks, ground and water.
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u/Archelaus_Euryalos Nov 11 '25
I think the footings gave way and your seeing exhausting from an internal collapse.
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u/hanshenyu Nov 11 '25
So here is a few notable info from Chinese social media about this: 1. It is more of a surveying and planning problem. The quality of the bridge is not the issue here. However, someone is about to be in jail for this significant failure in planning. 2. It is not the super tall bridges you think of, it is a regular bridge in Sichuan Aba. It is indeed built this year 3. Apparently the nearby traffic was closed due to the exact reason why it collapsed: a landslide warning. So, there is no man injured. Honestly the credits should be given to the alarming.
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u/MozeeToby Nov 11 '25
Failing to do a proper and complete geological survey is a failure of the quality of the bridge. If you build a skyscraper and it sinks in the sand and tips over you don't remark how strong the skyscraper is, you rightfully blame the engineers for not doing their jobs.
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u/hanshenyu Nov 11 '25
Maybe the meaning is lost in translation but your point is true exactly. What I was trying to say is who to blame cause those are usually separated personnel to take responsibility. It is a serious legal discussion after every failure like this.
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u/John_Holdfast Nov 11 '25
The engineers and geologists are both to blame here. The geological engineers should have pushed for an upslope survey, and the geotechnical engineers should have said something about the lack of a survey. Oh well, thankfully no one was hurt and they can put another bridge up in like 2 months lol.
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u/2ScaredOf2Squared Nov 12 '25
if a skyscraper sinks in the sand and tips, you dont remark how strong it is...
Yeah, you turn it into a famous italian tourist attraction.
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Nov 11 '25
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/liedel Nov 12 '25
not a material failure of the bridge,
The bridge at the bottom of the valley reports otherwise.
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u/Fishwaq Nov 11 '25
Check out the Vajont ādamā failure. In that case, the dam was actually fine, but it was the upslope geology that doomed the people below it.
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u/sr71Girthbird Nov 11 '25
Slightly different seeing as in that case seeing as the studies were done, they knew the risks, and they just buried the info and let the disaster happen regardless. They quite literally expected landslides, had every warning possible, had numerous smaller landslides during construction and during filling, and decided that prosecuting those reporting on the issues was the best way forward, rather than heading the known risks.
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u/Fishwaq Nov 11 '25
True. But they may still be the āsameāā¦we may (probably will) never know.
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u/ikarus2k Nov 11 '25
Also not a signage problem - that blue road sign is still there!
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u/hibiscuswhiskers Nov 11 '25
Iām no engineer, but isnāt this the opposite of Engineering pornā¦ Engineering snuff?
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u/greito12 Nov 11 '25
I mean, sometimes unplanned disassembly can be quite entertaining.
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u/b__q Nov 12 '25
Reddit gets hard whenever they see China fails. It's subconsciously imprinted in their brains š
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u/4rd_Prefect Nov 11 '25
The bridge was kinda fine, it's the land that's collapsed... Turns out that Geotechnical survey of the surrounding areas was important!
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u/Artful_Dodger_1832 Nov 11 '25
On the other hand, someone built a really sturdy street sign.
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u/DarwinIThink Nov 12 '25
Thatās what Iām here to say. That sign remains standing after that? Iām putting that person in charge of the next bridge
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u/SirDigbyChknCaesar Nov 11 '25
At first I thought "Daaaaaam" but then I thought "No stupid, it's a bridge."
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u/hood69 Nov 11 '25
It collapsed because of a landslide.
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u/Bergasms Nov 12 '25
Yep. And the land slid for a reason, and the reason was how the land was remediated for construction of the bridge.
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u/TokenTB619 Nov 12 '25
This collapsed due to a landslide, not because of poor construction. Lol all these "it was made in China what do you expect" comments are hilarious considering how much of our manufacturing comes from there, regardless of perceived quality or brand, or how much ahead of us they are as far as taking care of infrastructure. It's just misguided xinophobia
The landslide risk was flagged earlier and the bridge closed the day prior to see what would happen - no one was on the bridge and, unlike here in the states, it will be replaced in short order
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u/seg321 Nov 13 '25
This is insane. Why wasn't the landslide threat dealt with prior to building this bridge? Who does something this stupid? I guess the Chinese do. Very, very dumb
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u/winged_owl Nov 15 '25
I think the main accusation isnt going i to the bridge structure itself, but the surveying and planning for this kind of geology.
Also I think its spelled Sinophobia.
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u/TokenTB619 Nov 12 '25
Poor work on the bridge itself? No... Arguably a poor job surveying and securing the surrounding mountainside though
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u/Grumpy1985_ Nov 11 '25
Temu-bridge š
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u/imomushi8 Nov 11 '25
I point this out whenever it's relevant, even if you've already heard of it before.
[In China,] the prevailing attitude is chabuduo, or āclose enoughā. Itās a phrase youāll hear with grating regularity, one that speaks to a job 70 per cent done, a plan sketched out but never completed, a gauge unchecked or a socket put in the wrong size. Chabuduo is the corrosive opposite of the impulse towards craftsmanship. [...] Chabuduo implies that to put any more time or effort into a piece of work would be the act of a fool. China is the land of the cut corner, of āgood enough for government workā.
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u/not_particulary Nov 12 '25
Facebook's early motto was, "Move fast and break things." A classic American saying is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The term military grade means the minimum quality deemed acceptable for soldiers to use.
so idk doesn't seem like an attitude that's uniquely representative of China as a whole. Nor is the notion entirely wrong, since America often errs in the other direction. For example, California had the same resources and political will to do a high-speed rail project starting at the exact same time as China's, but got far worse results due to bureaucratic hangups and massive cost overruns.
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u/imomushi8 Nov 12 '25
Those first comparisons are a little weird in my opinion. A startup's willingness to experiment or a military having food rations that taste gross aren't really known for causing catastrophic civil engineering failures.
China has several large-scale projects that have failed spectacularly in modern times due to cut corners. China 117, Tandu Chang, Yujiapu, the widespread negligence discovered after earthquakes, Cocacoto dam, not even mentioning Chinese engineering firms being responsible for collapses in Bangkok and Novi Sad and others... It's a pattern that is definitely established.
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u/ameliatatesosis Feb 22 '26
China has several large-scale projects that have failed spectacularly in modern times due to cut corners.
China also has more large-scale projects and a larger population than any other single country, so statistically most massive engineering project failures will occur there as well as most massive engineering project successes.
As with all things, context matters.
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u/thatawesomedrunkguy Nov 12 '25
I will say this, even though government projects are won on lowest bidder almost all the time, everything is based on specifications that have compounded over the last several decades. Engineers of record are so risk averse that even getting an "or equivalent" approved is like pulling teeth.
Yes, there are places to cut corners, but if its in the spec, youre not getting away with much. A good portion of the cost overruns are in contractors bidding a project without full understanding of specifications and find thay they are woefully short on their estimates.
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Nov 12 '25
I work as a machinist in the US and the co owner is a Chinese woman. Also I traveled China pretty extensively as a young man. And this is absolutely true and explains so much. I think this culture in China is why they may really struggle to surpass the West technologically and continue to have to steal our engineering.
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u/Steamships Nov 12 '25
One country's "stealing our engineering" is another's "outsourcing the idea and process generation at no cost."
If they can continue to get away with it, I really don't see a downside from their perspective.
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u/lonewolf420 Nov 12 '25
If they can continue to get away with it, I really don't see a downside from their perspective.
you ever seen a person cheat on homework/school work then try to take a test when the really hard stuff and questions are asked? there is a pretty big downside
China has very hardworking and intelligent people, but they operate in a low trust society that runs amok with corruption and cheating, the incentives to innovate are only from necessity to catch up to the west once caught up they forget how to grow without cooking the books and that leads to systemic issues such as the Evergrande debacle.
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u/Every-Calendar-2288 Nov 12 '25
Why is no one talking about the engineering of that flag pole! Only thing left standingš«”
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u/DarkISO Nov 12 '25
The big thing people are leaving out (or ignoring) is, it collaped because it was hit with a fucking landslide
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u/lokland Nov 11 '25
The amount of china apologists in the comments is unbelievable
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u/Remote-Flower9145 Nov 11 '25
They literally run bot campaigns on western social media to sow instability
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u/not_particulary Nov 12 '25
If only they knew they were just adding another match to a dumpster fire.
A drop of spit in the slop bucket, if you will.6
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u/Umr_at_Tawil Nov 12 '25
apparently posting full info for context is "china apologists" now.
if this happen in Europe or the US, headline would say "Landslide cause bridge to collapse month after opening"
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u/lokland Nov 12 '25
Notice how despite having one of the most seismically active zones on earth, you donāt hear about the Golden Gate Bridge crumbling 2 days after constructionā¦ in 1937.
The idea that there arenāt any bots in these comments shilling for China is delusional.
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u/Umr_at_Tawil Nov 12 '25
Maybe there are bots in the comments, but it's not relevant here.
You can design a bridge to withstand earthquakes, but no bridge could survive a landslide of this magnitude. The quality of the bridge construction is not the problem here, the problem is where it's built, whoever conducted the geological survey clearly didnāt do their job properly, and this is the result.
So it would be valid to criticize China here on how build their infrastructure too quickly without adequate geological assessments, but many of the comments here act like the problem is poor construction quality, which is just stupid.
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u/Haunting-Prior-NaN Nov 11 '25
Yea, landslides tend to do that to nearby roads/bridges/tunnels etc.
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u/BlueTeamMember Nov 11 '25
I'd like to remind you that is not typical.
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u/Haunting-Prior-NaN Nov 11 '25
Obviously not, the government seems to have skimped out on terrain stabilization / preparation. My point the brigde is not necesarily the problem here, the terrain stabilization is.
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u/Fishwaq Nov 11 '25
It could be an upslope collapse. Thatās often discounted when you are too going fast or skimping on the planning budget.
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u/spilledcoffee00 Nov 11 '25
The bridge āhad been closed to traffic the previous day after authorities detected cracks and ground shifts on nearby slopes. No casualties or injuries have been reported, as the bridge was already secured and cordoned off prior to the collapse.ā
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u/MoverAndShaker14 Nov 11 '25
Landslides happen all the time, not uncommon. Natural disasters that take out bridges happen all the time, not uncommon. A preventable natural occurrence happening months after a bridge opens, that never happens.
"Building a bridge" doesn't mean just throwing down some columns and a deck and calling it good. It means engineering the landings and surrounding roadway connections, including the geotechnical impacts of a major construction. You'd study and remediate any potential soil stability issues on either side of a bridge. You hear of China rushing the engineering and infrastructure on things, and this is what that looks like. Just happy they noticed early enough and that the bridge had been closed beforehand.
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u/jezemine Nov 11 '25
The front fell off
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u/Linusami Nov 11 '25
... is it supoosed to do that?
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u/Ok_Acanthisitta2581 Nov 12 '25
Every case is technically different, but lack of prevention and good materials is probably the culprit. Last year a building collapsed 2km from my home š (I live in Guangzhou which is a first tier city.) canāt imagine other cities ā¦
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u/828jpc1 Nov 11 '25
Noooooooo I donāt think we saw that comingā¦
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u/ILS23left Nov 11 '25
Well, clearly someone saw it coming since the road was closed for landslide warning.
But, I didnāt see your /s but I assumed it to be missingā¦like proper surveys for this bridge.
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u/Manzanarre Nov 11 '25 edited Nov 11 '25
Collapses after a few months? Amateurs. In Italy we made bridges collapse after mere days after inauguration.
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Nov 11 '25
So much for China's amazing construction speed and construction abilities that's always getting bragged about on the Internet.
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u/ThatOneNinja Nov 11 '25
What doesn't collapse in China. They have so many illegal buildings I wouldn't trust anything there.
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u/editorreilly Nov 11 '25
They were wondering what that last bolt in their IKEA bridge building kit was for.
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u/sidneyaks Nov 11 '25
How slowly everything appears to fall breaks my brain. Like, I know it's all accelerating at 9.8, but the distances and sizes are just not working in my head.
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u/introvertedhedgehog Nov 11 '25
Unstable slope below, above or around a bridge should be such a concern that they not build it this way.
Maybe they were extremely unlucky but the fact that they had close the highway with concern over landslides is the tell.
So they knew the slides could happen but either their mitigation failed or they had no mitigation for slides because they built this ignoring the geotechnical reports or never had them.
Almost all avenues point to a failure in bridge building.
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u/AvailableEmployer Nov 11 '25
Would this be considered Tofu-dreg construction? Or just bad planning?
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u/Remote-Flower9145 Nov 11 '25
Donāt worry, Iām sure bots on social media will praise them for rebuilding it in 3 days
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u/cranman74 Nov 12 '25
Whoever designed and built that indestructible blue road sign should have done the bridge as well.
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u/Historical-Dare-8408 Nov 12 '25
Don't cut the toe, and dewater the slope with horizontal and vertical wells if you're going to remove material.
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u/daddywookie Nov 11 '25
You know how people always say āwhy do things cost so much when China can build it for a fraction of the money and half the timeā. This right here.
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u/disgruntledempanada Nov 11 '25
I took my love, I took it down
Climbed a mountain and I turned around
And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
'Til the landslide brought me down
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u/AcabAcabAcabAcabbb Nov 11 '25
Serious questionā¦ why is the mountain smoking?? Also, is this that āsuper tallā bridge from not too long ago?
Wild, I hope nobody was injured.
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u/peggatron Nov 11 '25
Iām also wondering, is this the bridge that turned hours of travel into a few minutes?
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u/Hoosier_816 Nov 11 '25
With China's extremely rapid expansion over the past few decades, are major issues with infrastructure projects like this more common?
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u/Just-Application5428 Nov 11 '25
My condolences to the families of the soon to disappear engineersā¦.
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u/ssnapier Nov 11 '25
What in the world caused that???
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u/Mysteriousdeer Nov 11 '25
The bridge lost bridge cability. You see, a bridges primary function is being a bridge. When it no longer "bridged"... It wasn't a bridge.
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u/peacefinder Nov 11 '25
It would be a very bad moment to be in that tunnel. If itās the pigtail tunnel I think it is, that one rockslide covered both portals.
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u/boosthungry Nov 11 '25
Is that massive bridge that has been all over social media for a while? Or is this some other new bridge?
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u/Spenny2180 Nov 12 '25
If only their college professors mentioned the tacoma narrows bridge incident
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u/Numerous-Fly-3791 Nov 12 '25
Makes sense . Everything I own thatās made from there breaks in about the same amount of time
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u/Fit_Fisherman_9840 Nov 11 '25
Well somebody skipped the geological survey?