I worked for a structural engineering firm, and you’re going to be disappointed about the dilligence and competence of oversight. It’s projects like these that result in additional reviews and investigations, but civil engineering is one of those things that governments stop funding when it’s working well.

Everyone forgets why they need inspectors and regulators and qualified reviews documented in triplicate. Businesses need to grow, after all, and these derned taxes and red tape are just gumming up the works. So everyone relaxes to the point where one overworked moron is responsible for the safety and structural integrity of six bridges in a remote part of Canada, and then one of them falls down.

In this case, they spent under $400k to build a bridge, and the engineer didn’t even do a geotechnical survey for the helical piles. He also failed to provide welding details, but the eyewitness reports say that it looked like the ground under the piles gave way from below, which wouldn’t be caused by imsufficient welds.