Hacker News
points by gchamonlive 3 days ago | 0 comments
Reminds me of https://translate.kagi.com/www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-366...

  The lesson from residents who built a bridge for less than 2% of the budget projected by the city government
[–] autoexec 3 days ago
It's very easy to save money when you don't pay workers and aren't worried about safety or accessibility. They'd made and were using several wooden bridges before this one, but all of them failed and were washed away. Maybe they get lucky and this one will stay up for a long time, and be continuously maintained by volunteers, but I'm very glad that the bridges in my city are more expensive because they were built by engineers who have to get designs approved and their work inspected and maintained regularly.
[–] gchamonlive 3 days ago
Actually it's easy to inflate prices when politicians are corrupt, also https://translate.kagi.com/globoplay.globo.com/v/3474112

  Overpass collapses in Belo Horizonte, killing two
This happened where I live over 10 years ago, a huge investment that collapsed when they tried to hammer the support off. This was overseen by Cowan and had many engineers signing off.

The bottom line is when there is political interest, even guerrilla infra might work, but nothing survives corruption and neglect. The case of the makeshift bridge is only a matter of making the required tests and adaptations to make it legal or condemning the structure and building a new one.