Most Expensive Construction Mistakes in the World

human mistakes are almost inevitable and happen every now and then however you might think that large construction mega projects are very carefully thought out yet this is not always the case in this video we're going to take a look at how billion dollar mistakes were made construction sites were delayed for decades and a skyscraper in new york nearly fell over and caused a disaster before we continue make sure to like this video and subscribe to top luxury let us know in the comments below what you think about these construction failures [Music] number five 20 fen church street taking its name from its address the 20 fen church street building is a commercial skyscraper in london the building was sold to a hong kong manufacturing company named lee kum ki for around 1.8 billion dollars which is a record price for a single building in the uk after its completion in 2014 the skyscraper was not only referred to as a walkie-talkie due to its distinctive shape but was also named the ugliest new building in great britain however the real problem with the building was elsewhere at 20 fen church street a comparatively not so expensive but unusual mistake was made in the planning process similar to many modern skyscrapers the walkie-talkie has a large glass front that reflects the sunlight however unlike the normal high-rise buildings that usually have straight walls this led to a problem during the day the sun shines on the south side of the building and unfortunately this side has a slightly concave curvature consequently the walkie-talkie concentrates the sun rays onto the street and the houses on the opposite street side in the summer this meant that the sun's rays were reflected six times stronger than normal as a result this generated extreme heat that melted even parked cars and caused cracks on the sidewalks in a sky news video a reporter fried an egg across the street using only the reflected sunlight jim waterson is a reporter on city am he's just cooking up some lunch here i can't even lift it up it's actually that hot he's just baked fried an egg uh here on the streets of london he's just putting that in there for his story it is so hot it is so hot the building's architect rafael vignoli also designed the vadara hotel in las vegas which had a similar problem with sunlight reflection in an interview he mentioned that horizontal louvre windows on the south side should prevent this problem however they were removed at some point during the planning process vignoli also said that he didn't know it was going to get that hot and when he first came to london years ago it wasn't like this in the end a sun shade was installed which ultimately fixed the problem costing around 14 million dollars number 4 stuttgart 21. stuttgart 21 is a giant railway mega project in germany the project is one of the most interesting construction sites in the country as an entire train station has to be rotated by 90 degrees previously the station was a terminus which means the trains had to leave the station in reverse this costs valuable time which is why the government decided to transform the train station into a transit station this way the station can be part of a continuous 1500 kilometer long high-speed rail line that connects paris stuttgart munich vienna and bratislava when construction began in 2010 it was planned that the stuttgart 21 should cost no more than 5.4 billion dollars with a completion date in 2019 however they failed miserably to achieve either of those two goals the project's completion has been delayed numerous times due to various reasons as of now it is expected that the train station will open at the end of 2025 more than six years later than initially planned in addition to protests by many germans and environmental activists stuttgart 21 was further delayed due to difficulties with the tunnel construction nearly 60 kilometers or 37 miles of tunnels have to be built to connect stuttgart's new station with the existing rail network unfortunately a special type of soil which swells once it comes into contact with water makes the work very challenging this could lead to the problem that the tunnels have to be renewed over and over again another surprising but comparatively not so bad problem occurred in 2017. due to the construction project thousands of strictly protected lizards had to be relocated on the route from urun to stuttgart the project management has estimated that this incident will cost 18 million dollars in some difficult cases the responsible company has charged costs of up to ten thousand dollars per lizard in addition to the delays the costs for stuttgart 21 will be at least twice as high as originally planned independent estimates suggest that the cost could soar to nearly 12 billion dollars by the time the project is completed number three citigroup center the citigroup center is an office skyscraper situated in midtown manhattan new york the 280 meter high skyscraper has a very special feature it is supported by four foundation pillars each 34 meters in length in 1978 a major problem was identified till then the engineers estimated the stability of the building by calculating the winds that came perpendicular to the building however they didn't calculate the quarter winds that hit the corners the problem was discovered when civil engineer william le mesurier was having a discussion with civil engineering student diane hartley from princeton she claimed that the building was unstable and could fall over at any moment during a strong wind for this reason the engineers have started to carry out tests for structural safety they quickly discovered that college student diane hartley was right estimated that a wind that could cause the building to collapse occurs every 55 years on average however if the installed mass damper could not work due to a power failure a wind that occurs every 16 years on average would already be strong enough a fall of the building would have fatal consequences in contrast to a demolition the building would not collapse in on itself but instead topple over this could create a domino effect and cause surrounding skyscrapers in new york to be damaged or even collapse a horror scenario which had to be avoided at all costs and it got even worse hurricane ella was making its way directly to the city engineers had to do something and quickly as they didn't want to cause a mass panic only very few people including new york city's mayor knew about the problem and no public statement was made the engineers worked at night for three months to solve the problem ultimately they welded two inch steel plates over the bolted joints in the building to increase the stability of the citigroup center fortunately hurricane ella did not reach the region and the multi-million dollar repair was completed in october 1978. 17 years later the whole story was published in an article in the new yorker after luma series casually talked about it at a party number 2 jeddah tower formerly known as the kingdom tower the jeddah tower is located in jeddah saudi arabia at the same height as two and a half empire state buildings stacked on top of each other the jetta tower was to become the first one kilometer high building in the world the skyscraper is part of saudi arabia's push to diversify the country's economy towards tourism similar to dubai and the famous burj khalifa construction of the jetta tower began in 2013 and was planned to be completed by 2018 however the 2017 saudi arabian purge caused major construction problems and work on the building stopped with only a third of the tower completed major investors of the project including prince al-waleed bin talal were imprisoned by the saudi arabian government after the investors were released a few months later construction was still on hold and there was no official date for its completion at the time of stopping the tower had already risen to a height of 252 meters covet 19 has further delayed plans for the construction to restart in 2020 as it would not be safe for workers to work in such conditions since then there has been no progress on the construction site if the project gets abandoned midway through its construction there would be a loss of at least a billion dollars number one berlin brandenburg airport berlin brandenburg airport is an international airport project in germany when construction began in 2006 the project was originally scheduled to cost around 2.4 billion dollars and be opened in 2011. however what followed were years of delays caused by embarrassing failures and corruption consequently the construction deadlines could not be met in any way the first delay occurred in 2010 about one year before the original opening date when the bankruptcy of an involved planning company was announced further delays happened due to non-compliant fire protection requirements but not just that the airport also failed the acceptance test required to operate as an airport in addition a total of 67 kilometers or 37 miles of cooling pipes without thermal insulation were installed to solve this mistake dozens of walls were torn down and the pipes were replaced to date the costs have more than tripled to a total of 8.3 billion dollars 14 years after the start of construction and nine years after the originally planned opening date the berlin brandenburg airport went into operation in 2020 however that is not the end of the airport's failure despite its opening the airport is unlikely to be able to finance itself both during and after the pandemic more funds will be needed to prevent bankruptcy which could cost an additional 2 billion dollars what do you think about these construction failures which one did you like the most let us know in the comments below if you enjoyed this video make sure to hit the like button and subscribe to top luxury thank you for watching and we'll see you in the next video [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Top Luxury

Views: 1,401,867

Rating: 4.780045 out of 5

Keywords: top luxury, b1m, jeddah tower, jeddah tower construction, most expensive fails, expensive mistakes, most expensive mistakes ever made, worlds most expensive mistakes, fenchurch street, citigroup tower, citigroup center tower, megaprojects, skyscrapers, stuttgart 21, stuttgart 21 project, berlin brandenburg airport, expensive fails, most expensive, most expensive mistakes, construction, mega project, engineering, most expensive mistakes in all history

Id: WVCOYUXkeKg

Length: 10min 51sec (651 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 15 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/rewboss]

Well, as the entire video makes clear, this is a global problem, not specifically a German problem; it just so happens that of the five failures they randomly picked, two are from Germany.

The problem really is local politicians pushing for ridiculously flamboyant prestige projects, and then awarding contacts to companies that promise to do it cheaply and fast.

[u/JJ739omicron]

not much.

[u/middendt1]

I think a big problem is the tendering system.

Politicians have a strong interest in pushing the projects through. It's a great thing to be the initiator of something like the Elphi or a new airport. In the idea generation phase, the costs are then calculated down so that the budget is released by the executive bodies.

Once the budget is in place, the tendering process starts. Here, the most favorable bidder usually wins the contract. Unfortunately, this is then the cheapest and not the best provider. Otherwise, the tight budget would not be sufficient. Often, the cost estimates of these providers are not realistic. Intentionally. The providers know that a project cannot be cancelled after 50% completion. Simply because the project owners do not want to lose face. Then the hand can be held out. According to the motto: We need more money, otherwise insolvency is imminent.

In order not to endanger the project and not to stand there with half a building, the money is then granted. This is why political projects in Germany almost always turn out to be considerably more expensive than planned.

[u/halcy]

Corruption and cheapest-bidder hiring, same as everywhere else.