Original subtitles

[Narrator] Construction. Heavy machinery.

Tight schedules. Millions at stake.

What could go wrong?

Everything.

Whether it's faulty equipment, poor design, human error...

or just bad luck...

...these are...

Construction fails.

In this episode...

A super bridge for a super highway...

Concrete evidence of Italy's worst construction fail.

Talk about unfinished business...

A cathedral in its third century of construction.

How to fix San Francisco's leaning Millennium Tower...

Too Hot to Handle...

The building that's heating up one London neighourhood.

When it was constructed in 1967, the Morandi Bridge

was an icon of Italian engineering and design.

A super bridge for a super highway.

It spanned a valley in the northern coastal city of Genoa.

Part of the Italian autostrada...

...that links the nation to France.

On August 14, 2018, a rainstorm was pounding the city.

Suddenly...

The impossible.

A 210 metre section of the bridge collapsed.

Cars, trucks and roadway dropped 45 metres.

CCTV cameras positioned around the bridge

capture the moment from several angles.

43 people were killed.

Miraculously, 16 survived the fall.

Genoa was brought to a standstill.

The collapsed bridge severed not just the highway,

but rail traffic.

The Italian government declared a state of emergency.

Help arrived from every corner of the nation.

Italy was in a state of shock.

The failure of this symbol of Italian style

and industrial prowess meant only one thing...

...Italy was failing too.

As images of plummeting cars were transmitted

around the world, the nation could only ask:

What went wrong?

Officially opened in 1967, the span was hailed

as a landmark in engineering and architecture.

Over one kilometer long, the bridge's road deck

was 45 metres above the valley.

Its three reinforced-concrete pylons

soared 90 metres.

The pylons supported diagonal stay cables

that carried the road deck.

The bridge's engineers confidently predicted

the structure would require little maintenance.

Thanks to a coating of concrete,

its stay cables were considered impervious to weather.

On August 14, 2018, eye-witness reports

suggested the bridge may have been

struck by lightning.

But investigators determined that a lightning strike

would not have caused the bridge to collapse.

Another possibility was overload.

On August 14, traffic was heavy.

The driver of this truck hit the brakes

not a moment too soon.

Investigators were forced to an uncomfortable conclusion:

The Morandi Bridge had been failing for years.

The constant passage of trucks and cars over 50 years

took its toll.

But Italy was not alone.

Around the world in the 21st century,

major pieces of 1960s infrastructure are wearing out.

In August of 2007, in Minneapolis, Minnesota,

the Mississippi River Bridge,

part of the Interstate Highway system, collapsed.

Thirteen people were killed.

145 were injured.

The bridge was opened in 1967.

Forty years later...

it was gone.

The clean-up of the Morandi Bridge disaster

stretched on for weeks,

with teams working day and night.

Analysis of the wreckage yielded important clues

and a difficult conclusion:

The cause of the Morandi Bridge collapse was neglect.

Concrete seems permanent, unchanging,

fixed in place forever.

But looks can be deceiving.

Problems were detected in the Morandi Bridge

long before it collapsed, as far back as 1990.

In fact, the road deck was redesigned

and rebuilt over the course of its life.

But not enough it seems.

In 2016, the Italian government was warned

that the bridge was in urgent need of maintenance...

And not just the road deck.

In 2017, a confidential report observed differences

in the stay cables.

Fourteen days before the collapse,

a crack developed in the road deck,

near Pillar 9.

It's likely the crack was a sign that the stays

supporting the pillar were stretched.

But no action was taken to reduce the load on the bridge.

The concrete wrap around the stay cables was permeable,

allowing water into contact with the steel cables.

Over time, the internal cables corroded

and could no longer support the weight of the road deck.

In the weeks after the collapse,

engineers and designers pondered two options:

Repair the bridge?

Or build a new span?

Demolition on the remaining bridge parts began

in February of 2019 and was completed in June.

A new bridge design was commissioned

from Italian architect Renzo Piano.

Construction of the new bridge began that same month

and took a record 22 months to complete.

The failure of the Morandi Bridge

was a blow to Italy's pride.

Perhaps the new bridge will restore the nation's reputation

as leaders in design and engineering.

Devotion to the divine has inspired

architectural wonders of the world.

But it takes time.

The Great Pyramid of Giza was built in 20 years

with only primitive equipment - and an army of workers.

London's St. Pauls' Cathedral took 40 years to complete.

But Barcelona's Sagrada Familia,

is in its third century of construction!

The world's longest-running work-in-progress

is still unfinished.

The Sagrada Familia is a never-ending story

of setbacks and mishaps.

A visionary undertaking....

...with no end in sight.

In 1882 a Roman Catholic church was commissioned

to be built in the typical Gothic revival style.

It probably would have taken about five years to complete.

But then, a maverick modernist architect

named Antoni Gaudi took over the project.

His ambition was to redesign the cathedral...

and redefine architecture.

Even if it took forever.

Gaudi's curvy, surreal structures were already

building his reputation as an eccentric genius...

...Or an obsessive madman.

The Sagrada Familia could be said to do both.

Gaudi imagined 18 ornate towers,

gravity-defying arches, and massive sandstone trees

soaring 170-metres

above the 13,000 seat cathedral.

Facades featuring fantastical sea creatures

amid biblical scenes would be bathed in multi-hued light

from soaring stained glass windows.

Gaudi was a devout Catholic

and this was to be tangible proof of his devotion.

But with a budget that relied on private donations,

it was going to take a miracle to get it done.

Twenty years after construction began,

only a fraction of the basilica had been completed.

Gaudi cloistered himself onsite,

and made the Sagrada his life's work.

But tragically that life was cut short...

...when he walked into the path of an oncoming tram.

Gaudi died with barely a quarter of the building complete.

His assistant struggled for a decade

to continue his master's work...

...until the Spanish Civil War put a brutal end

to the effort.

Anarchists stormed the Sagrada, demolishing the basilica.

They set fire to Gaudi's workshop,

burning his drawings, smashing his models,

and destroying any hope of progress.

After the war it took 16 years for his successors

to piece together enough fragments of Gaudi's plans

to carry on.

For six decades, countless architects, artisans,

engineers and construction crews devoted themselves

to the task of realizing Gaudi's vision.

Relying solely on

donations, combined with a shortage of building materials

and a lack of skilled workers added to the endless delay.

All this time, the Sagrada Familia

has stood surrounded by cranes and scaffolding.

Which makes it the world's most popular construction site.

Tourists flock to the church to admire Gaudi's

unfinished masterpiece.

At least their admission fees contribute

to the still-crippling construction costs.

Except that the Sagrada has been tangled in bureaucracy

and legal battles with the city of Barcelona.

They requested a building permit in 1885...

and it finally came through in 2019...

That's 134 years of red tape.

Recent estimates had predicted the Sagrada

would be finished by 2026, a century after Gaudi's death.

Unfortunately the pandemic of 2020 shuttered the church,

turning away visitors and bringing construction to a halt.

That pushed the timeline yet again.

Gaudi predicted it would take 700 years

to build the Sagrada Familia.

So in a sense, the church is ahead of schedule.

In the late 12th century builders began work

on a bell tower in the Italian city of Pisa.

By the time they'd completed the second floor

it was already threatening to keel over.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa isn't just an iconic landmark.

It's medieval architecture's cautionary tale -

and a warning to future builders.

If you're going to go high, you've got to dig down deep.

900 years later you'd think they'd have figured that out.

In 2015, residents of San Francisco's

posh Millennium Tower started to sense a definite incline.

Reports confirmed that in the six years since

they'd moved into the luxury condo complex,

the northwest side of the 58 story glass tower had sunk

45cm and was tilting 35cm.

The Millennium's concrete tower and its foundation

exert a pressure of 7000 kilograms per metre.

All that pressure is directed down

on nearly 1000 friction piles driven into the hard sand.

The friction pile bears its load through friction

along the shaft...

...unlike the bearing pile which supports its load

at its bearing point.

Of course, it's common for buildings to settle over time.

But the Millennium Tower wasn't settling so much as dropping.

The drop was 25cm lower

than typical for a structure this size.

And there's no reason to believe it was going to stop.

And it didn't.

The view from the 13 million dollar penthouse

was decidedly lower than it was a year earlier.

The gleaming glass and steel structure

had been sinking at a rate of 5cm per year.

At that rate,

in ten years, the building would be 50cm shorter.

In 100 years, it would be hard to walk into the lobby

without bumping your head.

In September 2018, a massive window

on the 36th floor spontaneously shattered,

raining shards of glass onto Mission Street.

This was not the urban paradise residents had imagined

when they plunked down millions.

The Millennium was the first skyscraper to be built

in the area - and at 197 metres,

the tallest residential complex in the city.

But with every sinking centimeter

the property value plummeted.

The residents confronted the crisis

by launching a massive lawsuit.

And while everyone knew who was at risk,

the question remains:

How to fix it?

The solution?

Working just beyond the building's footprint,

the sidewalk and two lanes of traffic will close.

Workers will drill 52 piles under the north-west sidewalk

and tie them to the foundation.

These steel and concrete piles drop past the friction piles

and drill down directly into the bedrock.

Engineers are confident this underpinning

will prevent more sinking and even things out.

With all these fixes in place, it will take

about a half century to level out the building.

In the meantime seismologists are predicting

there's a 3 out of 4 chance that San Francisco

will experience a major earthquake

in the next 20 years.

And the Millennium Tower is right on the fault line.

So just as the tower is straightening out,

an earthquake could put a new tilt on an old problem.

If you leave your bicycle for too long

near 20 Fenchurch Street,

in London's Financial district,

you might worry that it gets stolen.

But the real risk is bizarre.

Cyclists are returning to find their bikes

as hot as a branding iron.

So hot, the seats are literally smoking!

The London police were on the case.

The search for a suspect was on.

Small wonder Fenchurch is the City's latest hotspot.

The burning question is why?

This is the reason.

The Walkie Talkie.

Thirty-seven floors of hyper modern architecture

looming over London.

Architect Rafael Vinoly has a talent for creating

structures with wavy, reflective exteriors...

...that would be pleasing to the eye

if they didn't sear your retinas

like you were staring into the sun.

Thanks to its innovative flared contour

that maximizes floor space the tower earned its nickname

Walkie Talkie.

The shiny exterior is clad with aluminum plates

and mirrored glass panels that reflect the sun.

This keeps the interior cool and saves on energy.

But what happens outside the building

is what developers sheepishly refer to as "solar convergence."

When the sun's rays hit the south-facing Walkie Talkie,

they bounce off its concave surface

and focus on the streets below.

On a sunny day temperatures on the ground

exceed a sizzling 117 degrees Centigrade.

Hot enough for a fry up.

Building managers have tried to mitigate the problem

with screens and awnings but the melting continues.

And just when it couldn't get any worse, it does.

The Walkie Talkie's downdraft creates

a wind tunnel on the streets below.

So instead of a cooling breeze,

it creates a giant convection oven.

The building has earned a new nickname,

the "Walkie Scorchie."

And a Carbuncle Cup award for the dumbest design of 2015.

The London "fryscraper" has become a bit

of a tourist attraction.

Bring your own thermometer.

Anybody with a tool belt thinks they're handy.

No training or license required.

But even the simplest repair takes at least

a little experience, if not expertise.

That's why we don't have do-it-yourself doctors.

Would a handyman try and fix their own broken bones?

They may get a chance to find out.

This guy's just going to hang up

the "Watch Your Head" sign.

Never mind. Don't need it.

The ceiling is leaking water.

And humans.

Here's the hammer throw.

And the bronze medal goes to this tosser.

The only way down off this roof is with a ladder.

So he's going to have to sit tight

till his partner regains consciousness.

This trailer isn't quite hefty enough to transport this shed.

So they're going to move it in garbage bags instead.

A "rotating fan" performs two functions.

Or should.

These security doors are brand new.

But they won't do much good if the shoplifters are invisible.

This man is so proud of his tree-cutting skills

he asks his friend to film him.

First, the wide shot.

Now the close up.

Okay, this time, aim away from the camera.

That's better.

That's one way to hail a cab.

The driver probably won't give him a ride,

but guaranteed, he'll tell him where to go.

First he's going to clear the ice off the roof.

And then, the roof off the roof.

[Woman] That's why I said 'no.'

[Narrator] This security door was installed

by a very dumb handyman...

Or a very smart thief.

The hotel room was fine, except they just installed

a new toilet and bathroom door.

One of them has got to go.

Because if you have to go - you're going to have to go

elsewhere.

There's something really satisfying about knowing

exactly how a story is going to end.

Even if it ends badly.

So, when you're absolutely, positively certain

you can Do It Yourself...

Don't.

♪