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this is what a 100 billion dollar mistake looks like on
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april 20th 2010 a huge explosion engulfed the deep water horizon
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offshore oil rig just 41 miles off the coast of louisiana the disaster claimed the lives of 11 workers
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and injured 17 others
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but the worst was yet to come oil was spilling out
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into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico at an alarming peak rate of 60 ,000 barrels a day.
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That's enough to fill almost four Olympic swimming pools with oil every 24 hours.
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The toxic black sludge polluted some 1 ,100 miles of America's shoreline
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and was quickly declared the largest oil spill in human history.
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But it could have been avoided.
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The trans -ocean -owned rig, which had been hired by oil giant BP,
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was positioned over an oil well 5 ,000 feet below the waves and a further 18 ,000 feet below the rock.
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BP had recently hired contractors Halliburton to seal the well up
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on the seafloor in order to temporarily shut the oil supply off.
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They planned to use a nitrogen foam cement mix for this, but both companies knew that the mix was unstable.
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Three out of four preliminary pressure tests revealed the mix did not meet the industry standards, but the companies cracked on regardless.
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As such, natural gas and oil began to leak through the cement seals.
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Then a series of emergency fail -safes also failed, which meant oil traveled up Deepwater's rig riser were explosively ignited at the top.
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The devastating damage sank the rig just two days later
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and left cleanup crews battling with tides of black tar for over three years.
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But the accident hit BP where it hurt the most, in its wallet.
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They initially established a $20 billion compensation fund for those affected,
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but the following year the company had hemorrhaged over $63 .4 billion in cleanup, recovery, and legal costs.
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And in a damning blow, the US government slapped the largest financial penalty ever imposed on
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a single company on BP to the tune of $20 .8 billion.
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All up, that's a staggering $104 .2 billion.
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But it's merely the first of many on today's astonishing journey into the most expensive mistakes in all history.
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Most people would kill for a 10 % share in Apple nowadays,
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but one man threw away his golden ticket to wealth beyond his wildest dreams for just 800 bucks.
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You've probably heard of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, but there was once a little -known third founder of Apple,
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Ron Wayne, who joined the former young entrepreneurs in 1976 to oversee mechanical engineering and documentation.
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He even penned the original logo.
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In return, he gained a 10 % stake in the business, but after becoming concerned about possible debts falling on him,
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he decided to sell his shares less than two weeks after drawing up his own contract.
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Although Wayne has claimed that he doesn't regret the potential screw -up, his original share of the company would now be worth $120 billion,
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making him the 10th richest man in the world.
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The global tech giant is valued at an astonishing $3 .5 trillion today,
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so even a small slice of the remarkable company could be life -altering.
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One thing Wayne does regret, though, is not holding onto his original contract, which he also sold for $500 in the 90s.
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Unfortunately for him, the same contract sold at Sotheby's Auction in 2011 for a whopping $1 .6 million.
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When it comes to aviation accidents, none can compare to the 2008 disaster of the USA's B -2 Spirit stealth bomber test flight.
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This state -of -the -art machine was taking off from Guam's Anderson Air Base when, all of a sudden, the left wing started to dip down dangerously.
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Unable to stabilize the craft, both the pilots ejected through the cockpit roof and the plane crashed and burned a few seconds later.
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Fortunately, both the pilots survived, but an investigation launched into what had caused this high -tech bomber to really bomb.
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It revealed that the plane's exposed air data sensors had been waterlogged by heavy rain prior to its takeoff.
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This meant air pressure readings during its pre -flight check were too high, so the waterlogged sensors were wrongfully recalibrated.
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However, when the pilots turned on the sensor heaters, the water evaporated, so while the readings looked normal, they were actually way too low.
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This incorrect data caused the onboard computer to display the wrong airspeed,
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so the pilots attempted to lift off at 153 miles per hour rather than the required 166 miles per hour.
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To top it off, the sensor's bad air pressure readings adjusted the plane into a sharp 30 -degree pitch upwards.
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Angled way too high and going way too slow, the plane immediately stalled and caused the inevitable crash.
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But the most serious revelation was yet to come.
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In 2006, this sensor vulnerability was discovered by aircrew and maintenance staff, but nobody thought to note it down.
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This communication crash came with a hefty price tag, as the plane had been valued at an abominable $1 .4 billion.
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Emphasis on the had.
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Catastrophic mistakes can happen anywhere.
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as proven by the Baltic ACE carrier ship which sank in just 15 minutes in the North Sea on December 5, 2012.
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The 23 ,500 -ton ship was lost 65 kilometers off the Dutch coast after colliding with the Cyprian container ship,
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the Corvus J, killing 11 of its 24 crew members
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and sinking over 1 ,400 new Mitsubishi cars which were being transported from Japan and Tokyo to Russia.
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While the Corvus managed to stay afloat and assisted with the search for survivors,
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the wreck of the Ace ended up almost 100 feet deep in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes,
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hindering a safe passage from marine traffic and risking the release of dangerous substances into the environment.
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In March 2014, the company Rikswaterstaat commissioned partners Boxalis and Mamoet Salvage to remove the wreckage,
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which began by extracting its 540 ,000 remaining liters of oil.
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More than 18 ships and 150 people then took part in a huge operation to remove the sunken vessel,
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which could only be achieved by lifting the irreparably damaged wreck in chunks.
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Starting in April 2015, the ship was cut into eight sections and brought to the surface in pieces.
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Look at just how huge it was.
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Here's the bow with all the cars inside ruined.
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Investigations have put the crash down to human error, with bridge officers of the ships failing to recognize the developing collision risk
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and then failing to communicate and carry out corrective measures.
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The mammoth salvage operation alone costs 67 million euros, the equivalent of around 75 million dollars today.
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Add that to the 60 million dollar cost of the Baltic Ace, 10 million dollars to repair the Corvus, as well as the 28 million dollars in cargo they were carrying,
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and the driving error cost around 170 million dollars in total.
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In April 1990, after decades of planning and work, the famous Hubble Telescope, which at the time was worth $1 .5 billion,
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was launched into space.
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It was designed to send back images to Earth of far -flung stars and galaxies.
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But there was just one problem.
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The images were coming back grainy.
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It was like they'd all been taken on a toaster.
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NASA eventually established that the 7 .8 -foot primary mirror of the telescope was actually the wrong shape.
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It had been built by the Perkin Elmer Corporation, and the problem was traced back to a calibration issue in their mirror -making equipment.
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Now, to make a giant, perfectly parabolic and lightweight mirror is no easy feat.
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First, chunks of borosilicate glass are melted into a mold over the course of a week.
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Then, over three months, the glass is spun and cooled from a temperature of 1200 degrees Celsius to 650 degrees Celsius.
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Finally, the mirror is ground and polished to an accuracy of 20 nanometers, which can take more than two years to complete.
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But a calibration issue at this stage meant the Hubble mirror
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was off by just one -fiftieth of the thickness of a human hair.
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It may not sound like a lot, but for that colossal $1 .5 billion price tag, NASA was not happy.
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Replacing the mirror was hugely impractical, so instead, NASA designed a corrective lens for the Hubble,
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a bit like how glasses correct people's vision.
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The Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement Instrument,
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or COSTAR for short, was delivered and installed in 1993 by a separate expedition.
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The costly mistake, leading to CoStar's development, ultimately set the entire project back a further $50 million.
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As a result of this blunder, all subsequent space telescopes launched have had built -in correction circuits and optics to ensure there's no chance of a repeat.
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June 4, 1996 was a dark day for the European Space Agency.
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It marked the launch of Europe's newest unmanned rocket, the Ariane 5, which was a predecessor of the super -successful Ariane 4.
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It was loaded up with four incredibly expensive satellites and achieved liftoff.
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But 37 seconds in, something went horribly wrong.
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At an altitude of 2 .3 miles while traveling at the speed of sound,
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the onboard computer suddenly and unexpectedly triggered the shuttle's self -destruct sequence.
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The rocket, along with the four satellites, exploded into an unrecoverable ball of smoke, fire, and debris.
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The Europeans were understandably crushed, but they discovered the entire accident was down to a single coding error.
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The Ariane 5 reused working software from its predecessor, the Ariane 4.
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Unfortunately, the Ariane 5's faster engines caused a bug that hadn't been found in previous models.
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The computer systems were essentially only designed to handle the speed increase of the older rockets,
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so when Ariane 5 accelerated much quicker than the old maximum, the computer's tracking limitations were exceeded.
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This crashed all the guidance and altitude systems,
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including the backups, and further misreading of this info on part of the computer led to an overcorrection of the thrusters.
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The rocket veered abruptly, and the changing aerodynamic forces tore chunks off of it,
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rupturing essential electrical links that triggered the self -destruct sequence.
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Now, if you're like me, you may be wondering why the rocket even had a self -destruct sequence.
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The answer is, every rocket has one, to ensure that if it loses control, it will explode in the air,
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over the empty -ish area of land around a launch site,
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rather than risking the out -of -control rocket blasting its full payload into a city or other settlement.
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Despite these safety measures, though, for the Ariane 5, those computer glitches cost the European Space Agency a total of $500 million,
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including its incredibly expensive cargo.
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When cryptocurrency Bitcoin was first invented in 2008, very few people saw the value in it.
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The decentralized digital currency hit the market with a value of just .0008 cents per Bitcoin.
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And people were pretty slow on the uptake.
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But Englishman James Howells saw the currency's potential.
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The avid IT worker mined more than 7 ,500 coins in a short span of time.
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But by 2010, Bitcoin still weren't worth much at just 8 cents each.
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So, James restored the private key code required to spend the
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coins he had mined away on an external hard drive and briefly forgot about it.
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But in 2013, he accidentally threw the hard drive away in what would turn out to be a very costly bout of spring cleaning.
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Unfortunately for him, 2013 was the year Bitcoin really started to take off.
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By April, it had reached a peak of $220 per coin,
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making James' stash worth a phenomenal $1 .65 million.
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But he realized his mistake all too late.
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He desperately began combing nearby landfills and dump sites in an attempt to retrieve his missing millions, but has never recovered the lost drive.
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To really rub salt in the wounds,
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Bitcoin's price per coin peaked at an unbelievable $124 ,517 on August 14th, 2025.
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Meaning that somewhere in an English landfill, an unsuspecting old hard drive was actually worth a staggering $934 million.
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That price is expected to climb to $375 ,000 per coin.
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meaning it could be worth around three billion dollars uh has
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anybody got a metal detector i could go borrow up next
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here's a little lesson from the british on how to waste billions of dollars
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or rather billions of pounds the high speed 2 railway better
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known as hs2 is a mega project currently underway in england
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which aims to make travel between the north and south way quicker, encouraging the country's economy to thrive along its path.
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But, following cancellation after cancellation, what was originally planned to look like this ended up looking like this,
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and then this, and currently it looks like this.
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The idea for the project emerged in 2009, where early concepts hoped it'd span all the way to Scotland.
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That was immediately scaled back to top out just beyond the city of Leeds, and received official approval in 2012.
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Initial forecasts predicted that the project would complete its first phase in 2026,
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with full completion coming in 2033 under a relatively modest budget of £32 .7 billion, or around $52 billion.
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Oh, how wrong they were.
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In 2018, soon after the first work contracts were awarded, uncertainty about the northern part of the project began to emerge,
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with politicians arguing against it altogether.
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As news emerged that the budget estimates for acquiring necessary land and property had been massively inaccurate,
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the realities of planning also proved much tougher than anticipated.
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As a result, hoping to allow more time for contractors to cut their costs, which were currently forecast at a billion dollars over budget,
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the British government pushed back the expected opening of the first phase from 2026 to between 2028
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and 2031 still in 2020 construction work was officially underway this
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is where the insanely overly optimistic early budget estimates really became
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obvious a rush to begin work also meant contracts were signed
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and started before designs were stable and construction risks and complexity levels were fully assessed, meaning prices rapidly grew out of control.
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Ground conditions along the route proved more troublesome than expected, and public pressure groups offered a lot of resistance to their local scenery being torn up,
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often requiring additional rerouting and compensation.
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By the end of 2021, panic set in as leaked reports predicted the project was going
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to cost an eye watering 106 billion pounds more than triple the initial estimate following
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that bombshell revelation the right leg of the original y -shaped hs2 rail network plan was shrunk down
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and as 2022 came and went budget spiraled further
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and station by station more length was cut off from the proposed network map.
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Eventually, the entire northern branch of the plan, which aimed to span from Birmingham to Manchester, was axed in 2023.
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The grand project was reduced to a single line between London and Birmingham.
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The disastrous failure of those now -cancelled lines cost the British taxpaying public an estimated £2 billion in wasted funds.
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And it'll continue to cost them more the cancelled plans are
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estimated to cost 100 million pounds in reversal procedures including tasks
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like filling boreholes the money already spent on extensive planning
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and initial now redundant construction tasks will never be recovered just
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take the plans to integrate london's euston station into the hs -2 for example the multiple designs for
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which reportedly cost a quarter of a billion
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and were scrapped entirely arguably worst of all more than 592
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million pounds has been spent on land that's no longer needed for the shortened project
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which included hundreds of homes
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that owners were forced to sell to make way for hs2
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these same homeowners are now being offered their houses back by the government albeit at higher prices now
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that housing markets
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and inflation have taken their toll i'd be furious wouldn't you
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now granted some of the spiraling costs of hs2 were hard
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to predict construction costs have risen drastically in the war -stricken
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pandemic -affected high inflation global economy of the past decade
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but there's no doubt the hs2 project was mismanaged
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and underestimated to the extreme
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and what was meant to be one of europe's proudest 21st
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century infrastructure projects has ultimately become the continent's biggest embarrassment most people can only dream about winning the lottery
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but for one anonymous retiree in coventry england
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that dream very nearly became a reality in october 2010 the
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euro millions jackpot was worth a staggering 145 million dollars the biggest lottery prize in british history up to that point,
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and hopeful ticket holders eagerly waited for their numbers to come up.
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After the announcement on October 8th, over 1 ,000 people submitted claims that they were the possible winner,
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including a 70 -year -old woman who came forward to confess that her husband might have thrown away her winning ticket.
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She claimed that she played the lottery every week
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and always wrote down her numbers in a notepad before passing the ticket to her husband for safekeeping.
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After hearing speculation that the winning ticket was purchased in Coventry, she checked her numbers and couldn't believe her luck until she realized the ticket was nowhere to be seen.
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While some lotteries allow different forms of proof of purchase, like payment records and CCTV evidence,
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unfortunately policy in this case stated that only the physical ticket itself was valid proof of the win.
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Devastating.
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The discarded winnings would have made her the 589th richest person in Britain, ranking higher than Phil Collins and David Bowie before his death,
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making this one costly mistake.
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The story of Spain's supposedly state -of -the -art submarine, the S -81 Isaac Peral,
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is one of the most embarrassing chapters in the country's military history.
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A submarine was commissioned in 2013 for the Spanish Navy, but there's just one problem with its design.
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Once it's submerged, the Isaac Peral may never be able to resurface again.
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This is because a miraculously unnoticed flaw in its design means
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that the ship is around 75 to 100 tons heavier than its design allowed,
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which means Spain essentially invested in a submarine which can only move in one direction, down.
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The mistake is said to have been the result of a pesky decimal point placed in the wrong place during calculations.
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And it's a single dot
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which could cost an extra $9 .7 million per meter of the hull which was extended to regain its balance.
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Considering $680 million had already been invested in the sub as part of a total $3 billion for a broader underwater fleet,
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this must have given the person responsible quite the sinking feeling.
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The blunder pushed the submarine's official launch date target from 2015 all the way to 2023,
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and required the intended naval launch base to be completely reshaped and renovated to accommodate the finalized sub.
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Ouch.
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There's something about Snow Crab that Americans just can't get enough of.
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Something seafood restaurant chain Red Lobster tried to capitalize on back in 2003.
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That year, they began offering an all -you -can -eat crab promotion for just $22 .99.
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Their internal calculations determined that this price, which was just a few dollars more than their regular $14 .99 buffet,
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was high enough to fuel a tasty profit.
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But they were oh so very wrong.
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It turned out that the people willing to pay $22 .99 were really big fans of snow crab.
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Red Lobster's profitable calculations assumed customers would eat up to two plates of crab plus other sides and mains.
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But they were actually eating more than twice that amount on average.
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This is because crab meat isn't thick, so customers were able to eat a lot more before filling up.
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Not only that, but crab is a fiddly food to eat, meaning customers were spending much longer at their tables and,
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hence, costing restaurants more due to reduced customer turnover.
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Customers really got their money's worth.
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Red Lobster on the other claw started hemorrhaging money.
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They'd inadvertently sparked huge demand for the legs, which are an import item.
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This caused the price of crabs to skyrocket, meaning that, to honor the promotion, Red Lobster had to keep buying in snow crabs at increasingly exorbitant prices.
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By the end of just one quarter, the company took a massive $3 .3 million loss.
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This triggered a cascade effect, where Wall Street analysts saw the mismanagement mistake and downgraded their stock price,
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wiping a huge $400 million off the company's value.
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That'll teach him for underestimating the American appetite.
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When novice hunter Sergio Martinez got lost wandering in the wilds of Southern California back in October 2003,
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he was convinced he was going to die.
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In a desperate attempt to attract the attention of nearby rescue helicopters, he lit two small signal fires amidst the dry brush of the San Diego hills.
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While the fire and smoke he made did get attention, it wasn't for a good reason.
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The hastily made signal fires accidentally sparked a huge uncontrollable wildfire,
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which was driven across the landscape by strong Santa Ana winds.
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Thanks to this, it quickly spread at a rate of 3 ,600 acres per hour.
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By the time it was finally contained on November 4th, it had scorched more than 273 ,000 acres,
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an area of land roughly the same size as Hong Kong.
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2 ,820 homes and buildings were destroyed, and 15 people tragically lost their lives.
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Even today, it's widely considered one of the worst wildfires in Californian history.
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Despite this, Martinez was only sentenced to serve six months in a work furlough program along with 960 hours of community service.
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While his stupid decision hadn't cost him all that much, insurance losses were estimated at just over $1 billion in total.
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That's around $1 .76 billion today.
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In 2003, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company had been tasked by NASA to work on the NOAA Prime Weather Satellite,
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a $233 million piece of space technology filled with meticulously calibrated instruments
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but disaster struck
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when workers were carefully turning the satellite into a horizontal position
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the entire structure suddenly toppled over three feet to the ground the damage to all those delicate systems was severe
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and a full inquiry was launched into the mishap despite the presence of incredibly smart technicians
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and engineers there was a serious lack of procedural discipline throughout the facility it turned out
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that while the turnover cart used during the procedure was in storage, a technician removed 24 bolts which secured the cart's adapter plate,
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and all without ever documenting doing so.
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The team who then used the cart failed to check the bolts before moving the satellite, and bingo, multi -million dollar destruction was born.
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Lockheed Martin had to dig into the profits it had earned,
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and with a little help from the government they both footed the astronomical 135 million dollar repair bill
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if i was the one paying
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that i think i'd have fallen over in spring 2014 london
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welcomed an ambitious new skyscraper to its financial district the 525
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foot tall reflective building became known as the walkie -talkie due to its distinct curved design
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but this shiny new tower was hiding a sinister secret as summer came around citizens of london began complaining
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that the building's south -facing concave surface was causing powerful rays of sunlight at certain points of the day
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which could raise the temperature to an unheard of 158 degrees
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fahrenheit the highly concentrated beam was capable of melting tiles causing a small fire on the doormat of a barbershop
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and melting a Jaguar XJ belonging to a local businessman, while one journalist even attempted to fry an egg in the extreme heat.
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The newly nicknamed Walkie Scorchy had to be stopped,
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so a permanent sunshade was attached to the building between the 3rd and 34th floors over the course of six months, costing over $12 million.
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A hard pill to swallow considering the building already cost over
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250 million dollars to build ironically the architect rafael vignoli also designed the vidara hotel in las vegas
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which suffered a similar problem as it singed sunbathers earning it a nickname the death ray vignoli confessed
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that he knew this would happen but
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that he didn't have the tools to analyze just how bad
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it would be Someone needs to tell this guy to stop designing superweapons instead of buildings.
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On May 10, 2000,
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a wildfire known as the Cerro Grande Fire became one of the most destructive events the state of Mexico has ever seen.
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The blaze was intended as a deliberate controlled burn during a 10 -year plan to protect the Bandelier National Monument
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and reduce the natural fire hazards in its surrounding areas.
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Drought conditions in the late 90s made the area tinder -dry, and subject to possible ignition under unexpected circumstances like a lightning strike.
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So, Bandelier officials hoped the controlled burn would thin the coniferous and grassy areas.
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Unfortunately, they didn't account for high winds on the Cerro Grande summit, where the fire was started.
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Then the blaze quickly ripped through 150 ,000 acres of land, destroying 400 homes and damaging many other structures,
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including the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
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Thankfully, no lives were lost, but after multiple evacuations, the fire was not declared fully extinguished until the 20th of July,
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by which point the damage was irreversible.
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Officials were faced with harsh criticism for proceeding with the fire despite the contradictory weather conditions, and the U .S.
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General Accounting Office has estimated that the total damages cost around $1 billion.
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The tallest dam in the United States, the Orville Dam, was a $25 million response to more than $200 million in property damage
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because of flooding in northern and central California between 1955 and 1956.
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The dam did its job for 49 years until the winter of 2017.
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Due to the heavy rain, the reservoir's water levels rose dangerously, draining gradually by the dam's spillway.
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But suddenly, a crack appeared in the spillway, and not long after, it had grown into a 250 -foot crater.
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In a state of panic, officials shut off the water to the main spillway, but the reservoir's water level continued to rise.
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The only safety mechanism was a never -used emergency spillway designed to funnel water into the nearby Feather River.
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However, as water flowed down the emergency spillway,
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it caused erosion, threatening to break the entire dam and spill out into devastating floods.
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Thankfully, the dam held, and the 188 ,000 evacuated people were allowed to safely return.
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After a thorough investigation, it was revealed the entire ordeal was totally preventable.
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Why?
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Because the spillway had been built on unstable bedrock.
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As a result, the concrete separating trillions of gallons of rushing water from the bedrock over the years had worn paper thin,
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and a series of systematic failings meant no one had bothered to check it thoroughly for almost 50 years.
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The damage was devastating, repairs costing a monumental $1 .1 billion,
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a $455 million hike from the initial estimate for a dam
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that costs 25 million bucks those are some costly repairs the lotus riverside complex in shanghai was an ambitious project
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which ended in complete disaster
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because of one simple mistake the residential complex was comprised of 11 new high -rise apartment blocks
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but around 5 am on the 27th of june 2009 one
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of the 13 -story buildings suddenly collapsed miraculously missing the surrounding blocks and avoiding a devastating domino effect.
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The incident claimed the life of one construction worker, but the fallout could have been much worse if the almost complete building had been occupied by its buyers.
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Investigations found that the freak accident was caused by non -compliance with construction standards and some seriously shoddy foundations.
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Earth beneath the building was excavated to make a 15 -foot underground car park, and the soil had been piled up 32 feet on a nearby riverbank,
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which then crumbled under the pressure, allowing water to spread into the ground beneath the building.
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These muddy foundations caused the building to topple over in a southerly direction, but simply moving the earth elsewhere could have prevented the whole ordeal.
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This massive oversight caused a number of project investors to withdraw and request their money back, and the company suffered total economic losses up to $30 million,
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including construction costs and compensation to the would -be homeowners of the apartments.
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In 1992, the Spanish city of Seville hosted a World's Fair exhibition, intended to showcase the greatest achievements of the world's nations.
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And it was an insanely costly nightmare.
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Located on an island in a river running through the city,
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the exhibition's 100 -plus pavilions were incredibly ambitious too ambitious not all pavilions were paid for by spain
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but they funded
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and promoted the main thematic ones including the grand future plaza
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the seville government also poured in money to construct monorails
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and cable cars for folks to get around the expo as
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well as five multi -million euro bridges connecting the island to the city railways highways, and a new airport.
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All in all, the bold plan came in at over 7 billion euros, some of which the city hoped to recoup from ticket sales,
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foreign investment in the area, and tourism.
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Taxpayers weren't so optimistic.
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Locals interviewed at the time complained the project drained money from social programs and doubled their cost of living.
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Critics also suggested the construction contracts were murky and linked to corruption concerns with the government at the time.
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But controversy aside, the real trouble began before the exhibition even opened.
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One of the intended centerpieces, the Discovery Pavilion,
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was destroyed in a fire just before the expo started due to seemingly insufficient safety monitoring of welded work inside.
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In spite of that, the expo launched on the 20th of April and seemed to be a roaring success.
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240 ,000 paying visitors each day amounted to 41 million total
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by the end of the run more than spain's entire population at the time
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but it wasn't enough these guests fell short of projected figures
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of 60 million guests the near 20 million strong gap of potential hotel renters restaurant visitors
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and general money spenders seville had needed organizers had projected revenues of about 631 million dollars from ticket sales
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and over a billion more from non -government investments
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but despite the event's multi -billion dollar infrastructure builds
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and associated city renovations being largely financed by the spanish government
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and its subdivisions the city of seville itself was actually still left with a debt of 422 million dollars
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and a site no one knew what to do with most foreign pavilions were deconstructed soon afterwards by the countries
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that paid for them other developments stayed up intended to find some usage
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which never came leaving them empty derelict
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and wasted to this day in seville people still tour the
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expo grounds where among the dilapidated forms a small handful of pavilions are reportedly being renovated
356
while some are now used as offices
357
but for many of those costly pavilions intended to put seville on the map long term.
358
Their decaying shells are seen as a sign of overambitious, overly expensive, failed project long gone to waste.
359
Up next is a tale of astonishing incompetency and probable corruption that cost taxpayers billions. In 1990,
360
the government of Thailand awarded Hong Kong -based property developers Hopewell Holdings a contract to build
361
and operate a mass transit railway system in Bangkok.
362
The project was intended to span 37 miles of elevated track, built atop the infrastructure of existing train lines,
363
linking the Don Muang Airport with the city, among other improvements.
364
This $3 .2 billion deal took place during a time of major corruption scandals in the government.
365
And without thorough investigations into the feasibility of the project nor
366
timeline for its completion eyebrows were being raised right from the start construction of the
367
so -called bangkok elevated road and train system kicked off at a snail's pace
368
because it had been approved before ownership of the involved land was completely secured
369
so bold strategy cotton let's see if it pays off for them progress
370
if you can call it
371
that was also massively affected by repeated changes in government leadership seeing the project completely halted
372
and restarted a number of times as funding was gutted
373
and reinstated the first part of the project was meant to be up
374
and running by December 1995 with the remainder finished by December 1999.
375
however when a continent -wide financial crisis struck in 1997 work stopped entirely revealing the bombshell update
376
that the project was only 10 complete hopewell's execs blamed the
377
thai government's land acquisition issues for the lack of progress
378
while thai officials stated that hopewell had mismanaged funds
379
and run out of moolah either way in 1998 the state
380
railway of thailand voted to officially scrap the project arguing
381
that the agonizingly slow pace thus far would have made it impossible for Hopewell to honor the construction contract in reasonable time.
382
Both sides decided they were owed financial compensation from the other, initiating a legal back and forth that would last decades.
383
By 2010, the slew of legal wins, losses, and reversals saw the monetary figures reach astronomical heights,
384
with Hopewell seeking upwards of $1 billion in compensation for wrongful termination of their contract
385
and the State Railway of Thailand counter -seeking $6 billion in lost business and damages.
386
Court decisions seemed to favor Hopewell up until 2023,
387
at which point the Thai courts ruled that Hopewell's case for compensation was invalid.
388
The result?
389
Neither side owed the other anything.
390
They just had to sit with the costs they'd incurred over
391
decades of legal strife for the state railway of thailand
392
that included all the initial taxpayer -funded construction
393
and land acquisition not to mention 20 years of legal fees at the corporate level
394
and decades of wasted development potential in a major city big yikes specific incurred costs have never been publicly released
395
but if the state railway's likely exaggerated countersuit claims were even anywhere close to reflecting their actual incurred costs,
396
they could have easily been in the hundreds of millions, if not billions.
397
The project left over 1 ,000 concrete pillars standing as useless eyesores along the planned routes,
398
often referred too mockingly as Thailand's Stonehenge.
399
One section of the derelict Hopewell structure even collapsed in 2012.
400
Pretty apt considering the financial damage the project did to the city.
401
While much of the Hopewell project was demolished in the ensuing years, a $6 .3 million process again out of the taxpayers' pocket,
402
quite a lot of the remaining pillars are reportedly in usable condition.
403
But they're just standing there.
404
All thanks to what critics argue is, at best, insanely incompetent government management,
405
or, at worst, international political corruption on the part of those handing out construction contracts back in the 90s.
406
A conclusion either way would require a thorough, unbiased investigation.
407
But what is clear is that the feasibility of the project was never properly assessed,
408
and was left wide open to failure in the changing tides of Thai politics, And ultimately, the taxpayers paid the price, quite literally.
409
In 2011, the local government decided that Glencairn Tower in Motherwell, Scotland, was too ugly, unsafe,
410
and dilapidated to continue being a blot on the urban landscape.
411
With refurbishments priced at £10 million,
412
roughly $13 million, North Lanarkshire Council determined the best course of action was outright demolition. but
413
that plan then ran into numerous costing issues the original demolition
414
price was already seriously hefty at just under a million dollars
415
but when a deadly asbestos was identified throughout the tower another 500 000 bucks was added to the bill now
416
that might not look like much
417
when compared to the billions we've seen wasted on some projects so far but keep in mind this is all relative.
418
A million dollars is a lot to knock down low -cost housing, with most homes only costing about $10 ,000 a piece to demolish by comparison.
419
Complimenting the incredible costs, Glencairn Tower went down in a truly incredible demolition.
420
Well, while it may have cost 166 % of the initial estimates
421
and was never replaced by more low -cost housing
422
and at least we got a cool video out of it
423
until september 2021 kunming the capital of china's yunnan province was
424
home to 15 high -rise buildings owned by yunan hunghi real estate
425
however the volatility of the property market in china meant
426
that the buildings which cost 1 billion chinese yuan
427
or roughly 157 million dollars were left unoccupied for eight years
428
after the construction company in charge ran out of money in 2013, the basements of these buildings became submerged in rainwater, causing irreparable damage.
429
With maintenance costs rising and money on the project hemorrhaging, there was only one option left, a demolition derby.
430
In the eye -catching collapse, the buildings were torn to the ground in just 45 seconds,
431
using more than six tons of explosives placed at 85 ,000 blasting points.
432
Man, 157 million bucks is a lot of money to spend on a very big pile of rubble.
433
When it opened in 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington cost $6 .4 million to build.
434
That means if it was built today, it would cost a whopping $148 million.
435
At the time, it was the third longest suspension bridge in the world by main span.
436
with only the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and NYC's George Washington Bridge outspanning this megaproject.
437
With so much money sunk into it, construction workers were alarmed when, during the building process, the bridge began to move vertically in wind conditions.
438
The workers continued to follow the design regardless, giving the bridge the nickname Galloping Gertie.
439
Poor Gertie wouldn't be galloping for long, however, as just over four months after the bridge opened to the public, it spectacularly collapsed into the water below.
440
But how could such a collapse be allowed to happen?
441
Well, Galloping Gertie was the first bridge to be built with large beams of carbon steel anchored in concrete blocks.
442
Preceding bridges had typically used open trusses, a framework designed for structure support.
443
The new design had the effect of diverting wind both above and below the bridge, resulting in a swaying effect.
444
One day, the swaying developed into a dramatic twisting called aeroelastic fluttering,
445
whereby each twisting motion left the bridge in a more severe angle for the winds to act upon.
446
In the vicious self -escalating feedback loop that ensued, the bridge twisted beyond its limits and support cables and girders failed,
447
resulting in a dramatic, terrifying collapse.
448
And so, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge went down to its watery grave there were no fatalities
449
but the last person to come across the bridge leonard coatsworth lost both his car and his dog, Tubby.
450
In addition to the $6 .4 million blunder, Coatsworth was able to claim a total of $50 ,000 in today's money for all he lost.
451
But it wouldn't bring Tubby back.
452
If you're craving even more expensive blunders, check out this video about the most ridiculous megaprojects of all time.
453
Thanks for watching, and I'll catch you soon.
454
Thank you.
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אוצר מילים והערות הגייה לשיעור הזה
שיעור הדיבור הזה ברמה B2 מבוסס על הסרטון “Most Expensive Mistakes In History”. המילים שחוזרות הכי הרבה: billion, cost, project. בסרטון הזה יש 454 משפטים ו-6332 מילים לתרגול Shadowing. הדיבור נמשך 45:33. הדובר שומר על קצב יציב של כ-139 מילים בדקה, קצב נוח לתרגול Shadowing. רק 76% מהמילים נמצאות בין 3,000 המילים הנפוצות ביותר באנגלית, כך שאוצר המילים מאתגר.
אוצר מילים מרכזי בסרטון הזה
15 המילים המתקדמות ביותר בסרטון, עם ההגייה והמשמעות שלהן:
| מילה | הגייה | משמעות |
|---|---|---|
| crab שם עצם | /kɹæb/ | סַרְטַן |
| collapse פועל | /kəˈlæps/ | התמוטט, קרס |
| coin שם עצם | /ˈkoɪ̯n/ | מַטְבֵּעַ |
| demolition שם עצם | /ˌdɛm.əˈlɪʃ.ən/ | הריסה |
| taxpayer שם עצם | /ˈtakspeɪə/ | משלם מיסים |
| ambitious שם תואר | /æmˈbɪʃ.əs/ | שאפתני |
| buck שם עצם | /ˈbʌk/ | אַיָּל |
| astonish פועל | /əˈstɑnɪʃ/ | הדהים |
| blunder שם עצם | /ˈblʌn.dɚ/ | פַּאֲשְׁלָה |
| gallop פועל | /ˈɡæləp/ | דהר |
| telescope שם עצם | /ˈtɛl.əˌskoʊp/ | טֶלֶסְקוֹפּ |
| calculation שם עצם | /ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/ | חִשׁוּב \ חישוב |
| submarine שם עצם | /sʌb.məˈɹiːn/ | צוֹלֶלֶת |
| lottery שם עצם | /ˈlɑtɚi/ | לוֹטוֹ, הַגְרָלָה |
| homeowner שם עצם | בַּעַל בַּיִת |
Phrasal verbs שתשמעו
| מילה | משמעות |
|---|---|
| throw away פועל | הִשְׁלִיךְ |
| check out פועל | בדק |
| come back פועל | שָׁב |
| take off פועל | הֵסִיר, הוֹרִיד |
דקדוק בסרטון הזה
המבנים שהדובר משתמש בהם הכי הרבה, עם המילים המדויקות מהסרטון:
| מבנה | בסרטון |
|---|---|
| משפטי תנאי (Conditional sentences) if + clause, will/would + verb — תנאי ותוצאה שלו | if it loses control, it will explode · if it was built today, it would cost |
| הווה מושלם (Present perfect) have/has + past participle — פעולה שקרתה בעבר ועדיין יש לה חשיבות או השפעה עכשיו | You've probably heard · has claimed · have put |
| סביל (Passive voice) be + past participle — הדגש הוא על מה שקורה, לא על מי שעושה את הפעולה | have been avoided · had been hired · was positioned |
| משפטי זיקה (Relative clauses) who / which + clause — מידע נוסף על אדם או דבר | cars which were · nanometers, which can · costs, which were |
הגייה ששווה לשים לב אליה
הדובר משתמש ב-29 קיצורים וצורות מקוצרות, כמו they'd, wouldn't, didn't. אמרו אותם בצורה הקצרה, כפי שאתם שומעים אותם.
- הצלילים של “sh” ו-“zh”: demolition /ˌdɛm.əˈlɪʃ.ən/, ambitious /æmˈbɪʃ.əs/, astonish /əˈstɑnɪʃ/, calculation /ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/, bombshell /ˈbɑmʃɛl/
- מילים ארוכות — שימו לב להטעמה: demolition /ˌdɛm.əˈlɪʃ.ən/, reportedly /ɹɪˈpɔːtɪdli/, astronomical /ˌæs.tɹəˈnɑm.ɪ.kəl/, calibration /ˌkæl.ɪˈbɹeɪ.ʃən/, dilapidated /dɪˈlæpɪdeɪtəd/
צלילים שדוברי עברית מתקשים בהם:
- /w/ — שפתיים מעוגלות, לא /v/: whopping /ˈ(h)wɑpɪŋ/, wildfire /ˈwaɪldˌfaɪər/, sway /ˈsweɪ̯/, upwards /ˈʌpwɚdz/, underway /ʌndəɹˈweɪ/
- /æ/ — פתוח יותר מה-“אֶ” העברית, לא כמו “a” ב-“cup”: crab /kɹæb/, collapse /kəˈlæps/, ambitious /æmˈbɪʃ.əs/, gallop /ˈɡæləp/, stagger /ˈstæɡɚ/
- /r/ — הלשון לא נוגעת בשום מקום, לא ה-“ר” הגרונית: crab /kɹæb/, corrective /kəˈɹɛktɪv/, destruct /dɪˈstɹʌkt/, submarine /sʌb.məˈɹiːn/, thorough /ˈθʌɹoʊ/
איך לתרגל עם הסרטון הזה
- הקשיבו לכל הסרטון פעם אחת בלי לדבר, ורשמו את המילים שאתם לא מכירים.
- תרגלו Shadowing משפט אחר משפט במהירות רגילה, וחזרו על כל משפט עד שהקצב שלכם תואם את הדובר.
- הקליטו את עצמכם והשוו למקור, תוך תשומת לב למילים כמו crab, collapse, coin.
מהי טכניקת השאדואינג?
שאדואינג היא טכניקת למידת שפה מבוססת מדע שפותחה במקור להכשרת מתורגמנים מקצועיים ופופולרית על ידי הפוליגלוט ד"ר אלכסנדר ארגואלס. השיטה פשוטה אך עוצמתית: אתה מקשיב לאודיו באנגלית ילידית וחוזר עליו בקול רם מיד — כמו צל העוקב אחרי הדובר עם עיכוב של 1–2 שניות בלבד. בניגוד להאזנה פסיבית או תרגילי דקדוק, שאדואינג מכריח את המוח והשרירים בפה לעבד ולשחזר דפוסי דיבור אמיתיים בו זמנית. מחקרים מראים שזה משפר משמעותית את דיוק ההגייה, האינטונציה, הקצב, הדיבור המחובר, הבנת השמיעה ושטף הדיבור — מה שהופך אותו לאחת השיטות היעילות ביותר להכנה לIELTS Speaking ולתקשורת באנגלית בעולם האמיתי.