The Top 10 Worst Engineering Disasters in History

Les Listes is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Engineers tend to have grand aspirations when designing and engineering project. Sometimes, their big ideas balloon out of proportion. This can include the budgets getting too big, the scope of the project surpassing the original goals, and building something that people don’t actually want. With that in mind, check out below for the top 10 worst engineering disasters.

#10: The Big Dig in Boston

Boston did not age well in the modern age, especially when automobiles came along. The city’s network of streets date to colonial times. As such, they were too narrow for cars, and were easily congested. In the mid of the 20^th century, city planners built large elevated freeways in order to relieve the traffic congestion. For a time, this worked great. However, by the mid 1980s, the bridges were congested as well. In fact, civil engineers were warning of eminent structural failure.

During time, many cities around the country had policies against adding additional large freeways through urban areas. They didn’t want the noise, pollution, and eyesore. Boston was the same. They wanted to destroy the elevated freeways going through downtown. The solution that they chose was was Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel Project, The Big Dig. The project is a 3.5 mile tunnel that reroutes the highway traffic from the city’s urban areas.

However, the project had many problems including design flaws, scheduling delays (initial estimates said that the project would take 7 years but it took over 16 years to complete), and unexpected obstacles. It is the United States’ most expensive highway project at around $14.6 to $22 billion including interest.^[1]The Boston Globe – 10 years later, did the Big Dig deliver?

#9: Ford Edsel – 1957

In 1957, Ford Motor Company made the Ford Edsel as its mid range car of the future. The company’s founder, Henry Ford, had so much confidence in this engineering project that he invested $400 million into making it.^[2]Business Insider – 25 of the biggest failed products from the world’s biggest companies Accounting for inflation, that would be $3.5 billion today. Unfortunately, the car was a complete flop. Dealers hardly sold any. In fact, it was so bad that it cost Ford more money to make the car then to sell it. By 1960, after several years trying to get the American public to buy the car, Ford stopped production completely.

However, what made this one of the biggest engineering disasters?

This is due to four things.

Ford let ego get in the way. While, they did a lot of consumer research, they decided to not to pay any attention to it. For example, they did a lot of polling research in order to find the perfect car name. However, at the end of the process, Ford executives didn’t go with any of the findings and chose a name themselves.
There was no focus on what the car was. At this time in car history, cars didn’t come with a lot of accessory options. However, Ford wanted this car to be for everyone. Therefore, they decided to make 18 variations of the car in order to try and please everyone. Unfortunately, by trying to please everyone, they ended up pleasing no one.
Ford started selling the Edsel during a time when the market wasn’t doing very well.
They didn’t learn from their mistakes. In fact, many Ford executives remember the Edsel project with fondly. Some even say that it wasn’t their fault the car didn’t do well, but instead it was the American consumer’s fault.

#8: HealthCare.gov

The US Federal government developed HealthCare.gov in order to help provide health care services to everyone in the United States. This was especially important to people who couldn’t afford traditional health care coverage options. However, the website ended up being one of the biggest engineering disasters due to many technical and fiscal issues. They didn’t anticipate the problems of so many users trying to access the website at the same time. Government officials initially estimated that the project would only cost $500 million. However, afterwards, reports showed that it actually cost around $1.7 billion.^[3]Office of Inspector General – Report (OEI-03-14-00231)

#7: The Titanic

The Titanic is a notorious example of one of the worst engineering disasters in history. However, it failed due to many not so obvious reasons. The Titanic had several engineering problems. All of which aided in its demise. For example, engineers found out that the rivets that held the Titanic together were actually of a low quality iron metal. Furthermore, the 16 watertight bulkheads that separated the ship were not actually fully watertight. In fact, the designer left space on top. Therefore, the water could overflow from one compartment to the next. Due to this design over site, the ship was able to sink.

#6: Francis Dam

Engineers completed the expensive engineering infrastructure, the St. Francis Dam in 1926. At the time, it cost $1.3 million. Accounting for inflation that is about $18 million. Civil engineers built the dam in order to store water for the rapidly growing Los Angeles metropolitan area just south of it. At maximum capacity, the dam could hold 12.6 billion gallons of water. Tragically, on a midnight in March, everything went horribly wrong. The dam broke and the rushing water and debris killed hundreds of people as they slept. In addition, it caused damages totaling around $7 million. With inflation, that is around $100 million today.^[4]Smithsonian – On Occasions Like This, I Envy the Dead: The St. Francis Dam Disaster

#5: Tacoma Narrows Bridge

The former Tacoma Narrows Bridge was a suspension bridge in Washington State. Engineers built it in 1940. However, it collapsed in the same year. At the time, it cost $7.4 million to make. Today, accounting for inflation, that is around $130 million. At the time of its construction, it was the 3^rd largest suspension bridge in the world. However, it quickly became one of the biggest engineering disasters in history. In a relatively light wind, the bridge started to roll like a wave. This motion eventually destroyed it.^[5]Tacoma Narrows Bridge – Lessons From the Failure of a Great Machine It serves as an example of what can go wrong when you build something without taking proper considerations first.

#4: The Challenger space shuttle disaster

Humans have always been fascinated with going into space. From the beginning of the American space program, rockets and space shuttle have captivated the whole world. Space exploration is a perfect example of how the world can come together in order to complete a goal. However, the space program has had many terrible engineering disasters along the way. In 1986, the Challenger space shuttle is a notorious example of this. Only 73 seconds after launch, the space shuttle blew up in a fiery ball due to rocket component failures during launch. All 7 crew members died.

In addition to the tragic loss of life, it also cost a lot of money. According to NASA, the average cost to launch a space shuttle is around $450 million. However, when the Challenger space shuttle blew up, NASA had to build a new one to replace it. It cost NASA around $1.7 billion for the replacement shuttle.^[6]NASA – Space Shuttle and International Space Station

#3: Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster

In 1977, the Soviet Union put the Chernobyl Nuclear plant into operation in the Ukraine. The plant was able to produce about 4,000 megawatts of electricity. This was equivalent to about 10% of the electricity for all of Ukraine. However, in 1986, Chernobyl had a complete melt down in its 4^th reactor. This resulted in a terrible fire.

As a result of the destruction and nuclear fallout, the government had to close down the plant. They had to cover the nuclear plan in concrete in order to prevent the nuclear radiation from getting out. In addition, they put in place a 30 kilometer radius no go zone around the plant. This is one of the biggest and most expensive engineering disasters in history. In fact, experts estimate that Chernobyl has cost Ukraine around $700 billion in additional costs over the last 30 years.^[7]USC Global Health – New report examines financial costs of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster

#2: Mars Climate Orbiter

Space missions are difficult and risky. There are many potential unforeseen things that can happen. It takes a lot of smart people to get an object off of the earth’s surface and into space. Even then, these smart engineers and scientists can overlook things. The Mars Climate Orbiter engineering project is a perfect example of one of the biggest engineering disasters. The mission’s purpose was to study the atmosphere, climate, and surface changes of Mars. It cost over $190 million.

However, as the Mars Climate Orbiter approached Mars, it burned up upon entry. This was due to it entering the atmosphere at the wrong angle. Analysis later showed that the failure was due to mishandling by the engineering team. One of the teams that designed the space craft used English units of measure; however, another team used metric units of measure.^[8]NASA JPL – MARS CLIMATE ORBITER TEAM FINDS LIKELY CAUSE OF LOSS This lead to the computer miscalculating its entry angle and eventually destroying itself.

#1: Interstate H-3 in Hawaii

The 15 mile Interstate H-3 in Oahu, Hawaii is one of the biggest engineering disasters in Hawaii history due to several reasons. First, it is the most expensive highway in the US based on per mile. In 1997, it cost $1.3 billion to build. That comes out to about $80 million per mile. Today, accounting for inflation, that is around $2 billion total or $130 million per mile.^[9]star bulletin – After decades of controversy, the 16.1-mile highway will soon open for business Its second biggest failure is that most Hawaiians don’t even use the highway. When the government built the highway, they didn’t take into consideration the native Hawaiians’ opinions. In fact, many natives consider the area that the highway runs through as sacred ground it is the burial place of their ancestors. In fact, due to this, many natives consider the highway haunted.