The Owner chose the site. The engineers probably asked how much do you want to spend for placing this on geologic subgrade that will become unstable once the weight of the structure is imposed.
It might be straight enough for any normal purpose but plumb enough for a ZZZZ pound rocket and the accompanying thrust in another matter — which is probably the issue here.
I agree, wasn’t poor engineering it was a dumb spot to try to build it.
The road was built for the Apollo program and continued to be used for the shuttle.
“The Owner chose the site.”
You’re saying the structure is within ordinary tolerances, and no other tolerances were specified in the contract, so the designer is off the hook?
Hope the next launcher (mentioned in the article) will be better designed.
Wonder why they didn’t build the 1st launcher to accommodate the larger version of the rocket’s second stage?