Failure of The Quebec Bridge in 1907

The Quebec Bridge was supposed to be built on the St. Lawrence River in the city of Quebec [1]. It might
have been the world's greatest engineering marvel. Which was set to eclipse the renown and popularity
of Scotland's Firth of Forth Bridge, which was the world's largest bridge at the time [1]. The Quebec
Bridge, once completed, would be the world's biggest bridge of its kind [1]. In 1882, the Quebec Bridge
Company was chosen to complete the contract [2]. However, because to financial difficulties, the
project was not started until 1887 [2]. The Phoenix Bridge Company was also in charge of the project. It
fell twice after it was built, the first in 1907 and the second in 1917 [3].

The 14-kilometer-long bridge stood 150 feet above the river [4]. Peter L. Szlapka designed the project
with the help of a consultant Project Engineer [2]. In August 1907, the bridge collapsed during
construction [4]. 75 workers were killed as a result of the distraction [4]. The site inspector, Norman
McLure, detected a mechanical deviation and promptly contacted the consulting project engineer,
Theodore Cooper [4]. Both of them came to the conclusion that the deviation was modest and caused
by pre-existing problems [4]. There was a paucity of knowledge regarding how the construction would
perform mechanically because it was such a huge structure. Cooper extended the bridge's span from
487.7 to 586.4 meters [4]. The key blunder here was that the stress calculations were not changed once
the span was increased. McLure detected a significant deflection on the beam 9L [2] on August 29th.
After giving it some thought, he met Cooper in New York. Copper immediately sent a telegraph to John
Dean, the Chief Engineer of Phoenix Bridge Company, advising him that the bridge's load should not be
increased any more [4]. In the absence of John Dean, the message was ignored [4]. After a period, a part
of the 1.5-mile bridge fell in a chain reaction as a result of column and cable failures [5]. On August 29,
1907, at 5:15 p.m., the bridge collapsed [2].

The lessons we can learn about successful project management after seeing this instance. When
working as a team, the code of ethics should be prioritized. All departments engaged in the project must
thoroughly investigate the modifications made to the project. Deflection was induced in this situation by
stresses that were not considered. Which comes first: As it is critical to monitor its reflection, it falls
under risk management. Regardless of the position you have, you must evaluate and appreciate the
advice, regardless of who you are or how much experience you have. reports submitted by your
coworkers. This falls under the collaborative teamwork aspect, as one of the team members was not
working at his full potential, and the massage was ignored, which was another contributing reason. If it
is taken into consideration, it may save the lives of workers.

References

[1] H. M. James, "Quebec Bridge Disaster," The Candian Encyclopedia, 2015.

[2] N. Ahalika, "The Collapse Of The Quebec Bridge," Sharepoint Flavoured Weblog Reader, 2003.

[3] V. Kashyap, "23 Of The Worst Engineering Disasters To Date," 18 January 2021. [Online]. Available:
https://interestingengineering.com/23-engineering-disasters-of-all- time. [Accessed 23 September
2021].
[4] P. Cynthia and D. Norbert, "Collapse of the Quebec Bridge, 1907," Journal of performance of
construction facilities, vol. 20(1), no. American Society Of Civil Engineers, pp. 84-91, 2006.

[5] J. Julia, "Seven Of The Deadliest Infrastructure Faliure Throughout History," 14 August 2018.
[Online]. Available: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/world/bridge-collapses- history.html.
[Accessed 23 September 2021].

[6] C. Pearson and N. Delatte, “Collapse of the Quebec Bridge, 1907,” Journal of Performance of
Constructed Facilities, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 84–91, Feb. 2006, doi: 10.1061/(asce)0887-
3828(2006)20:1(84).