Photographs Showing Misaligned Bridge Constructions: Fact Check

Story:

Photographs of Misaligned Bridge Constructions

Other Versions

One of the worst construction mistakes of all time

Photographs Showing Misaligned Bridge Constructions

Fact Check:

Couple of pictures widely circulated online since many years claim to show Misaligned Bridges, as the worst construction mistakes of all time. Many viewers thought the pictures of misaligned bridges are real. However, they are simply Digital illustrative images.

First Picture

The first picture of misaligned bridge appears real. However, some viewers questioned why the two pillar supports are so close to each other, also pointing all supports are built first before constructing bridge deck over them. Some also pointed the road paintings take place only after completing the bridge construction. Back in 2007 the appeared as featured image on NOAA (The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) magazine website celebrating200years.noaa.gov to describe their ‘High-precision Transcontinental Traverse’:

Feature Stories : The High-precision Transcontinental Traverse

Survey-scale inaccuracy or positioning errors can lead to costly construction mistakes such as bridge misalignments. Image courtesy of Zurich U.S.

The image of misaligned bridge is said to belong to Zurich U.S., a Company that provides — Insurance and Risk Management solutions, suggesting the picture is simply a Digitally made illustration.

Second Picture

The second image of misaligned bridge (construction fail) initially came with a text saying – For civil engineer, there’s no such thing as a “little Mistake”. The original image, we could trace on an Engineering student website ce113.groups.et.byu.net also contained the below description (see third picture in Image Gallery):

That’s why the industry relies on Autodesk Civil Engineering Solutions.

Only Autodesk offers you solutions that integrate the engineering precision of CAD with the analysis power of GIS. Using Autodesk solutions, you can reduce errors and redundancy, make revisions faster, and maintain the integrity of your design date across the entire project lifecycle–from initial capture to design, through construction and infrastructure management. Because the longer it takes to find mistake, the bigger they become…

So quite clearly, the second picture of misaligned bridge is again not real, but a digital creation to illustrate the cost of survey-accuracy and construction related errors. Both the photographs do not show actual bridge constructions. However, they often appear online with various titles and memes like Engineering mistakes that will make you laugh.