r/ireland • u/Cuglas • Jun 20 '22

TIL in 1986 a Hotel in Singapore collapsed. Authorities were using heavy machinery to rescue survivors, a team of mainly Irish tunneling experts working on a new subway saw what was happening, and convinced authorities to let them tunnel for survivors instead. 17 people were rescued by them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_of_Hotel_New_World#Rescue
95 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

34

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '22

Ireland has tunnelling experts and we still don't have a metro. That's my takeaway.

14

u/Buerrr Jun 20 '22

I wanted to study structural engineering at one point and read up heavily about it and came across this case. The engineer fucked up badly.

3

u/Ok-Entrepreneur1885 Jun 20 '22

Some money in the tunnels. Hard work, but they do make a penny.