A newly constructed $2.3 million bridge in Bhopal, India, has gone viral for its jarring, nearly 90-degree bend. The structure, intended to ease traffic for 300,000 daily commuters, has instead resulted in seven engineers being suspended, massive corruption investigation, and major construction firms being blacklisted, after public outcry over the impractical and dangerous sharp turns.
While the project’s chief engineer cited “limited land space” as the cause for this design, critics contend such a sharp turn should never have been approved. Authorities are now considering purchasing additional land to correct the turn—a solution that will require a lot more time and a lot more money.
Moral of the story: A chain of approvals from seemingly qualified & authoritative people is no guarantee of integrity or intelligence. It often represents only a collective surrender of judgement, where everyone assumes someone else has done the thinking. This bridge stands as a monument that we should never defy logic and surrender our own common sense.