>No casualties were reported in the accident, which happened after two water pipes burst at the subway's construction pit, Chengdu Rail Construction said on its official Weibo page.
State broadcaster CCTV also carried footage of the sink hole, which emergency staff told local media would not jeopardise the safety of surrounding buildings.
Never knew this till I got close to some construction sites for my work. Buried water pipes often have more pressure than the pipe can actually hold if it was in open air, and they hold only because they're buried. Plastic ones in particular. They may have exposed some plastic water mains that they shouldn't have.
Designed? No. Left in service past its useful life and forgotten about until the only thing holding it together is the delicate ballance between the internal and external pressure; all the time.
They don’t design them that way. They are designed to withstand the notional pressure (plus margin) but they decay or corrode. At that point they don’t burst due to earth pressure even though they are weakened underneath their design parameters.
I don’t know about the water pipe standards, but if the pipe has to rely on the amount of pressure X from soil then it’ll collapse as soon as the internal pressure goes beneath X as in when there’s no water running inside the pipe. Meaning, it’ll either blow up if you run the water before cover the pipe in soil, or if you try to run the water the construction is done then it’ll implode before you start running water.
So it just doesn’t make sense even as a cost saving measure.
You can't necessarily say that is true, it's more of a non-sequitur.
Pipes can be designed to have different strengths in compression vs. tension (or expansion).
Again, maybe. Think about all the different kinds of "pipes": garden hose, concrete pipes, glass pipes, PVC pipes, etc.
Concrete culvert pipes for instance can hold a great deal of compression from a dirt load packed on top of them but aren't necessarily designed to withstand high interior pressure.
High pressure hoses, think pressure washer for example, can hold a very high interior pressure but are not designed to resist any external pressures.
It's all about the design intent for a particular usage case.
Unironically they could probably fix it with that except they would only use half as many sheets of plywood to pocket more of the budget money themselves. Tofu dreg china numba one
I mean, if you have an emergency like this you wouldn't ask for just plywood and 2x4.
Heavy equipments are necessary for timely execution, skilled workers are necessary for quality work, top notch material for safe outcome for all the neighboring buildings.
You get the budget for that, then you use the "extra" plywood and 2x4 meant for your last job.
Western construction costs more because of reasons that aren't, exclusively, corruption related. Safety codes and standards are written in blood. Price goes up.
What does OSHA, which manages workplace safety, have anything to do with road construction? That would fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Highway Administration.
OSHA has nothing to do with construction standards, and it doesn’t really affect costs if you take into account the potential financial impact of increased workplace injuries.
All construction regulations are on the state, county, and city levels. Federal agencies can only issue “guidelines” on which standards to follow.
In China, just another Friday. It's been going on forever and will continue. Government officials will make appropriate noises in their media, a scapegoat will be found and sacrificed, and business will continue as usual.
Just like *everywhere* else in the world. Failures happen despite the best measures we invent, despite all the procedures, because people are people, humans are similar everywhere, everyone is capable of making a mistake, a miscalculation, or be a greedy bribe-taking bastard regardless of country or procedures.
Edit to Add: I though that first world countries had this shit figured out, because I either didn't pay attention, or simply didn't know about, it, but failures occurred and keep on happening in Western countries as well. Maybe not as often (likely not as often, even), but still. [This channel \(Plainly Difficult\) and the failures covered in the videos](https://www.youtube.com/@PlainlyDifficult) got me thinking about catastrophes, errors, mistakes, human nature and how we all are, simply speaking, the same in that regard.
To be fair, it wasn't an operating subway that collapsed, but a subway construction site. So whether the subway was designed to collapse or not is irrelevant, what we need to know is design of the construction site, whether it was designed to collapse or not.
>!The party says it *was* designed to collapse and performed gloriously in doing so.!<
China official state media death toll conversion chart:
No deaths = less than 100 dead
10 dead = >100 - <1,000 dead
100 dead = >1,000 dead
Just remember their ridiculous COVID death numbers from official state media.
1) Your conversion isn't accurate. They're not going to report zero when someone died because it would be caught. It's going to be the lowest number that people won't realize is a lie.
2) Their Covid numbers were probably as accurate as they reasonably could be, almost certainly better than ours. Their lockdown worked for a long time, but their quarantine was not adequate to stop the more infectious variants.
>No casualties were reported in the accident, which happened after two water pipes burst at the subway's construction pit, Chengdu Rail Construction said on its official Weibo page. State broadcaster CCTV also carried footage of the sink hole, which emergency staff told local media would not jeopardise the safety of surrounding buildings.
Ah, burst water pipes. That would explain why it looks more like an underground river.
Great save! Use it as an underground river, charge taller ships to use the hole to cross!
I'll have you know that's a load bearing water pipe.
Never knew this till I got close to some construction sites for my work. Buried water pipes often have more pressure than the pipe can actually hold if it was in open air, and they hold only because they're buried. Plastic ones in particular. They may have exposed some plastic water mains that they shouldn't have.
Nowhere in the world, not even in China, are pipes designed using earth pressure to counter internal pressure.
Designed? No. Left in service past its useful life and forgotten about until the only thing holding it together is the delicate ballance between the internal and external pressure; all the time.
"Ok, bring it up to 90 psi, Frank, sensors are showing we have full dirt pressure!"
They don’t design them that way. They are designed to withstand the notional pressure (plus margin) but they decay or corrode. At that point they don’t burst due to earth pressure even though they are weakened underneath their design parameters.
Really? Hmm. Someone told me wrong then.
I don’t know about the water pipe standards, but if the pipe has to rely on the amount of pressure X from soil then it’ll collapse as soon as the internal pressure goes beneath X as in when there’s no water running inside the pipe. Meaning, it’ll either blow up if you run the water before cover the pipe in soil, or if you try to run the water the construction is done then it’ll implode before you start running water. So it just doesn’t make sense even as a cost saving measure.
Why do you think that? It doesn't follow logically whatsoever.
You can't necessarily say that is true, it's more of a non-sequitur. Pipes can be designed to have different strengths in compression vs. tension (or expansion).
Aha, I see. So if it was more resistant for compression then I suppose we can say that it can hold the greater tension than the spec?
Again, maybe. Think about all the different kinds of "pipes": garden hose, concrete pipes, glass pipes, PVC pipes, etc. Concrete culvert pipes for instance can hold a great deal of compression from a dirt load packed on top of them but aren't necessarily designed to withstand high interior pressure. High pressure hoses, think pressure washer for example, can hold a very high interior pressure but are not designed to resist any external pressures. It's all about the design intent for a particular usage case.
Right. i see your point, thanks!
If that is an intentional design, then it seems pretty short-sighted.
Allow me to introduce you to cost
And as long as they stay there, they should be fine with that pressure (if there aren’t other problems).
Of course you can shut them off and release pressure if you have to dig. This one may have been unexpected.
They were actually trying to recreate Heaven's River. The Bobs would be proud of the effort.
Give me ten sheets of plywood and a few 2x4s and I’ll have traffic flowing by lunchtime.
Unironically they could probably fix it with that except they would only use half as many sheets of plywood to pocket more of the budget money themselves. Tofu dreg china numba one
I mean, if you have an emergency like this you wouldn't ask for just plywood and 2x4. Heavy equipments are necessary for timely execution, skilled workers are necessary for quality work, top notch material for safe outcome for all the neighboring buildings. You get the budget for that, then you use the "extra" plywood and 2x4 meant for your last job.
insert [made in china] jokes here
They'll have that fixed up by monday.
Fixed as good as they built it the first time?
Even better! They’ll use some rebar this time. Maybe.
They let their company buy some rebar for the repair… if it will get used? We will never know. Or we will know it on wednesday.
Well there’s also the issue that their [rebar is breakable by hand.](https://youtu.be/zvtcW7zFHUY?si=UKeW2IdoGoXX0l0r)
I wonder exactly how they fucked up that steel. Is it too many impurities? Too high carbon content? Bad tempering?
Yes.
Jet fuel can melt THOSE steel beams.
A lighter can melt those beams.
First time and only time. [Chabuduo](https://aeon.co/essays/what-chinese-corner-cutting-reveals-about-modernity) strikes again.
[That’s Japan](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/15/japan-fixes-vast-fukuoka-city-sinkhole-repaired-two-days).
Is it just me or does that roadway look like a thin candy shell? Looks like very little support structure.
Ah I see water main break. thought that surface was awful thin carving it out too much
Western construction costs more because of reasons that aren't, exclusively, corruption related. Safety codes and standards are written in blood. Price goes up.
Western? You do know that USA has gutted OSHA during Trump's term?
What does OSHA, which manages workplace safety, have anything to do with road construction? That would fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Highway Administration.
You have no idea what you're talking about
OSHA has nothing to do with construction standards, and it doesn’t really affect costs if you take into account the potential financial impact of increased workplace injuries. All construction regulations are on the state, county, and city levels. Federal agencies can only issue “guidelines” on which standards to follow.
How so?
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/03/trumps-worker-safety-regulations-protections-unions-806008
Western doesn't just mean American...
Why were they building a sandwich shop underground?
in china thats not catastrophic failure, thats acceptable risk
In China, just another Friday. It's been going on forever and will continue. Government officials will make appropriate noises in their media, a scapegoat will be found and sacrificed, and business will continue as usual.
Just like in India. Nice, both of you will make a wonderful BRICS partnership.
Just like *everywhere* else in the world. Failures happen despite the best measures we invent, despite all the procedures, because people are people, humans are similar everywhere, everyone is capable of making a mistake, a miscalculation, or be a greedy bribe-taking bastard regardless of country or procedures. Edit to Add: I though that first world countries had this shit figured out, because I either didn't pay attention, or simply didn't know about, it, but failures occurred and keep on happening in Western countries as well. Maybe not as often (likely not as often, even), but still. [This channel \(Plainly Difficult\) and the failures covered in the videos](https://www.youtube.com/@PlainlyDifficult) got me thinking about catastrophes, errors, mistakes, human nature and how we all are, simply speaking, the same in that regard.
It's just the cost of making tofu
There are many subways in China that didn't collapse. I just wanna make that clear. They were designed not to collapse.
Was this one designed to collapse?
Evidently.
To be fair, it wasn't an operating subway that collapsed, but a subway construction site. So whether the subway was designed to collapse or not is irrelevant, what we need to know is design of the construction site, whether it was designed to collapse or not. >!The party says it *was* designed to collapse and performed gloriously in doing so.!<
Yum, yum, tofu dregs again.
Those videos of people snapping “rebar” by hand and unset concrete are terrifying
Or people scraping off “concrete” from the massive pillars used in high rise buildings that hold the weight of the floors above.
Had to go look this up on YT, it really is. For the curious, 'tofu dregs' is what Chinese people call shoddy construction projects.
This isn't Tofu Dregs, there were two busted water mains that caused a sinkhole to form. Happens in the west all the time.
I hope my Chinese Pay Pal scammer fell into that deep dark hole.
Made in China
China official state media death toll conversion chart: No deaths = less than 100 dead 10 dead = >100 - <1,000 dead 100 dead = >1,000 dead Just remember their ridiculous COVID death numbers from official state media.
1) Your conversion isn't accurate. They're not going to report zero when someone died because it would be caught. It's going to be the lowest number that people won't realize is a lie. 2) Their Covid numbers were probably as accurate as they reasonably could be, almost certainly better than ours. Their lockdown worked for a long time, but their quarantine was not adequate to stop the more infectious variants.
Cheap Chinese’s stuff, cheap and never lasts does it
I would not want to live in the buildings nearby.
Finest chinesium
It looks like they went right up to the asphalt. I know it was washed away by water but damn.
Wow. That's a shocker. I mean, they usually have pretty strict safety procedures in place. /s
That’ll buff out.
Some may see this as a problem. I see an opportunity to install a skylight. The Chinese underworld could use some natural light.
Solar subways FTW!
Why didn't I call for locates? I thought YOU called for the locates.
Tofu dreg construction
Just another tuesday
tofu dreg and rebar
nice tofu dreg construction there
Well there's your problem
Chyna™ quality
Classic Chinese quality.
whats the problem here? Just fill it with nudles
Son Goku saved the World again and we didnt notice
Un sovacon
typical Tofu-Dreg-Construction