Frowning => growing (*sigh*. Autocorrect)
If it was a typical solution at the time, it was not a mistake.
Hindsight is 20/20.
Frowning is not a bad description of a fracture’s demeanor....
My quick look showed that about 1/2 of the fracture was rusted. That seems reasonable.
Enough redundancy in the structure to prevent a catastrophic failure.
In third world counties, they ignore this sort of thing, and just let it fail.
Why put money into maintenance when you do not have enough in your Panamanian bank account?