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Seven Engineers Suspended After $2.3M Bridge Includes 90-Degree Turn

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171 points _sbl_ | 1 comments | 10 Jul 25 16:10 UTC | HN request time: 0.218s | source
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oc1 ◴[10 Jul 25 16:21 UTC] No.44522688[source]▶
<< According to official records, the design for the bridge shifted multiple times over the past seven years, largely due to conflicts between the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Railways. The two agencies couldn’t agree on how to share land, and in trying to work around both railway property and the new Metro line, they ended up producing a final layout with an abrupt 90-degree angle.

I love that mindset. Europeans would have simply refused and 100 years later it would have probably been build after all legal has been cleared. Indians instead never say no. That's how you build software, so why not bridges.

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cs702 ◴[10 Jul 25 17:20 UTC] No.44523260[source]▶
Shouldn't the bureaucracies be penalized, instead of the poor engineers?

The engineers built the 90-degree layout specified by their clients!

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a paper trail documenting the engineers' objections, signed and notarized by the clients.

It's hard for me to judge the engineers without knowing more.

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1. GuB-42 ◴[10 Jul 25 17:42 UTC] No.44523517[source]▶
It depends on what you expect from your engineers and how hierarchy works. It is a cultural thing I guess.

Do you expect engineers to do what you ask them to do, no matter how stupid. If you do and your engineers execute your stupid orders, then you are at fault. It was your job to have common sense, ask the right people, etc... You failed.

Now you may expect your engineers to call you and your stupid plans out, and if they didn't, it is their fault. They should have called you out and they didn't. They failed.

In the west, we usually expect the latter, so engineers should certainly be penalized. In India, I don't know.