[neverdem]

James L. Long Associates
Shuttle, 1979 The space shuttle Columbia was scheduled for its first mission in 1979. But when protective tiles fell off as it was being shipped to the launching site, it was back to the drawing board.

Vincent Laforet/The New York Times
Levee, 2005 The floodwall at the 17th Street Canal was one part of the New Orleans system that failed, sending water gushing through the levee.

Jerome Delay/Associated Press
Airport, 2004 Investigators pointed to four basic flaws in the design and construction of the passenger terminal at Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris that collapsed, killing four people.

United States Bureau of Reclamation, via Associated Press
Dam, 1976 The Teton Dam, built on a geologically suspect site, burst not long after it was completed.

[RonHolzwarth]

Is it possible that the engineering mistake was to choose to build a city below sea level?

Nawww,,,,,, we can do that!

[metmom]

I've heard that at one time parachutists in the service were dying because of improperly packed chutes. So they implimented a policy of making the parachute packers jump using one of the chutes they packed, picked at ramdom. It cut way down on chutes that failed to properly deploy.

I wonder what kind of engineering we would get if the lives of the engineers depended on the consequences of their poor design?

[randog]

Too bad journalists and editors aren't held to the same standard engineers are. A good 99% would be in jail by now.

[indthkr]

bump

[conservative in nyc]

More people died from the North Sea flood of 1953 in the Netherlands than died in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina. Due to levee breaks, 9% of the Netherlands' farmland was inundated by sea water. That's the worst levee-breach caused flooding in modern history in terms of loss of life.

Even more people died in the Johnstown Flood of 1889, which was caused by a dam collapse after years of neglect.

Bad engineering and neglect has happened over the course of human history.

[MarkL]

Add to the list, the Kansas City Hyatt Hotel. There were "skywalks" that collapsed during a "tea dance." 46 people were killed in 1981.

Mark

[upchuck]

THANK YOU for linking to the Printer Friendly version of the article.

Those of us trapped in 56K dialup HELL really appreciate it!

[Dawggie]

You may be surprised how often engineers are over ruled by the schedule pushers. Sometimes errors are not fixed because they are behind schedule.

[uglybiker]

I thought the levees failed because George Bush et al blew 'em up?

[roaddog727]

One thing this article fails to address is the political corruption withing NO and the political pressure place on the CORP by the NO folks to not make waves.

[Fzob]

Bump for later.

[Jonah Hex]

Practical real world engineering can be summarized as:

"I can give it to you fast, cheap, or good. You pick two of the three."

In other words, real-world engineering is a matter of trade-offs. As a user, I'm willing to trade off "cost" to get it "fast" and "good". A manager and/or politician, however, may choose to trade off "good" to get it "fast" and "cheap".

As long as managers and/or politicians with little or no engineering knowledge control the purse-strings, there is a risk you will see shoddy engineering fielded. Remember the Pinto? Goldin's "Faster, Better, Cheaper" plan at NASA?

[Redbob]

"IN ancient Babylon, they knew from accountability."

In ancient New York, they knew how to speak and write the English language.

[MrCruncher]

What did the Code of Hammurabi say about those committing treason against their own country, such as the NY TIMES?