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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: 0.211s | 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. rawgabbit ◴[10 Jul 25 20:13 UTC] No.44525019[source]▶
This is another variant of the argument who should business corporations serve. On one side, you have the argument the client or stockholder is the only stakeholder. (An extreme example is the Sackler's Purdue Pharma peddling Oxycontin which delighted stockholders for a while). On the other side, you have the argument there are many stakeholders including customers, employees, and the community they live in. (An extreme example of this was Google who promised to do good for society and treat their developers as prized not commodities; now Google appears to swinging to the other direction.)