Most Expensive Mistakes in All History

This is what a $100 billion mistake looks like. On April 20th, 2010, a huge explosion engulfed the Deep Water

Horizon offshore oil rig just 41 mi off the coast of Louisiana. The disaster claimed the lives of 11 workers and injured 17 others. But the worst was yet

to come. Oil was spilling out into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico at an alarming peak rate of 60,000 barrels a day. That's enough to fill almost four

Olympic swimming pools with oil every 24 hours. The toxic black sludge polluted some 1,100 m of America's shoreline and was quickly declared the largest oil

spill in human history. But it could have been avoided. The Trans Oceanowned rig, which had been hired by oil giant BP, was positioned over an oil well

5,000 ft below the waves and a further 18,000 ft below the rock. BP had recently hired contractors Hallebertton to seal the well up on the seafloor in

order to temporarily shut the oil supply off. They planned to use a nitrogen foam cement mix for this, but both companies knew that the mix was unstable. Three

out of four preliminary pressure tests revealed the mix did not meet the industry standards, but the companies cracked on regardless. As such, natural gas and oil began to leak through the

cement seals. Then a series of emergency fail safes also failed, which meant oil traveled up Deep Water's rig riser, where it explosively ignited at the top.

The devastating damage sank the rig just 2 days later and left cleanup crews battling with tides of black tar for over three years. But the accident hit

BP where it hurt the most, in its wallet. They initially established a $20 billion compensation fund for those affected. But the following year, the company had hemorrhaged over $63.4

billion in cleanup, recovery, and legal costs. And in a damning blow, the US government slapped the largest financial penalty ever imposed on a single company

on BP to the tune of $20.8 billion. All up, that's a staggering 104.2 billion. But it's merely the first of many on

today's astonishing journey into the most expensive mistakes in all history. Most people would kill for a 10% share in Apple nowadays, but one man threw

away his golden ticket to wealth beyond his wildest dreams for just 800 bucks. You've probably heard of Steve Jobs and Steve Wnjak, but there was once a little

known third founder of Apple, Ron Wayne, who joined the former young entrepreneurs in 1976 to oversee mechanical engineering and documentation, even penned the original

logo. in return gained a 10% stake in the business. But after becoming concerned about possible debts falling on him, he decided to sell his shares

less than two weeks after drawing up his own contract. 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,

making him the 10th richest man in the world. Damn. The global tech giant is valued at an astonishing $3.5 trillion today. So even a small slice of the

remarkable company could be lifealtering. One thing Wayne does regret though is not holding on to his original contract, which he also sold for $500 in the '90s. Unfortunately for

him, the same contract sold at Sues auction in 2011 for a whopping $1.6 million. When it comes to aviation accidents,

none can compare to the 2008 disaster of the USA's B2 Spirit stealth bomber test flight. 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. Unable to stabilize the craft, both the pilots ejected through the cockpit roof

and the plane crashed and burned a few seconds later. Fortunately, both the pilots survived, but an investigation launched into what had caused this high-tech bomber to really bomb. It

revealed that the plane's exposed air data sensors had been water logged by heavy rain prior to its takeoff. This meant air pressure readings during its pre-flight check were too high, so the

water logged sensors were wrongfully re-calibrated. However, when the pilots turned on the sensor heaters, the water evaporated. So, while the readings looked normal,

they were actually way too low. This incorrect data caused the onboard computer to display the wrong air speed. So, the pilots attempted to lift off at

153 mph rather than the required 166 mph. To top it off, the sensor's bad air pressure readings adjusted the plane into a sharp 30° pitch upwards. angled

way too high and going way too slow, the plane immediately stalled and caused the inevitable crash. But the most serious revelation was yet to come. In 2006,

this sensor vulnerability was discovered by air crew and maintenance staff, but nobody thought to note it down. This communication crash came with a hefty price tag, as the plane had been valued

at an abominable $1.4 billion. Emphasis on the had. Catastrophic mistakes can happen anywhere as proven by the Baltic ACE

carrier ship which sank in just 15 minutes in the North Sea on December 5th, 2012. The 23,500 ton ship was lost 65 km off the Dutch

coast after colliding with a Cyprian container ship the Cororvis J, killing 11 of its 24 crew members and sinking over 1,400 new Mitsubishi cars which

were being transported from Japan and Tokyo to Russia. While the Corvvis managed to stay afloat and assisted with the search for survivors, the wreck of the Ace ended up almost 100 ft deep in

one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, hindering a safe passage from marine traffic and risking the release of dangerous substances into the environment.

In March 2014, the company Rick Watersto commissioned partners Bokealis and Mamoet Salvage to remove the wreckage, which began by extracting its 540,000

remaining L of oil. More than 18 ships and 150 people then took part in a huge operation to remove the sunken vessel, which could only be achieved by lifting

the irreparably damaged wreck in chunks. Starting in April 2015, the ship was cut into eight sections and brought to the surface in pieces. Look at just how huge

it was. Here's the bow with all the cars inside ruined. Investigations have put the crash down to human error with bridge officers of the ships failing to

recognize the developing collision risk and then failing to communicate and carry out corrective measures. The Mammoth salvage operation alone cost €67

million, the equivalent of around $75 million today. Add that to the $60 million cost of the Baltic Ace, $10 million to repair the Corvvis, as well

as the $28 million in cargo they were carrying, and the driving error cost around $170 million in total. In April

1990, after decades of planning and work, the famous Hubble telescope, which at the time was worth $1.5 billion, was launched into space. It was designed to

send back images to Earth of far-flung stars and galaxies. But there was just one problem. The images were coming back grainy. It was

like they'd all been taken on a toaster. NASA eventually established that the 7.8 8 foot primary mirror of the telescope was actually the wrong shape. It had

been built by the Perkin Elmer Corporation and the problem was traced back to a calibration issue in their mirror making equipment. Now to make a giant perfectly parabolic and

lightweight mirror is no easy feat. First, chunks of borosilicate glass are melted into a mold over the course of a week. Then over 3 months, the glass is

spun and cooled from a temperature of,200° C to 650° C. Finally, the mirror is ground and polished to an accuracy of 20 nanome,

which can take more than 2 years to complete. But a calibration issue at this stage meant the Hubble mirror was off by just 150th of the thickness of a

human hair. It may not sound like a lot, but for that colossal $1.5 billion price tag, NASA was not happy. Replacing the

mirror was hugely impractical. So instead, NASA designed a corrective lens for the Hubble, a bit like how glasses correct people's vision. The corrective

optics space telescope axial replacement instrument or co-star for short was delivered and installed in 1993 by a separate expedition. The costly mistake

leading to co-star's development ultimately set the entire project back a further $50 million. 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. June 4th, 1996 was a dark day for the European Space Agency. It

marked the launch of Europe's newest unmanned rocket, the Arion 5, which was a predecessor of the super successful Arion 4. It was loaded up with four

incredibly expensive satellites and achieved liftoff. But 37 seconds in, something went horribly wrong. At an altitude of 2.3 mi, while traveling at

the speed of sound, the onboard computer suddenly and unexpectedly triggered the shuttle's self-destruct sequence. The rocket along with the four satellites

exploded into an unreoverable ball of smoke, fire, and debris. The Europeans were understandably crushed, but they discovered the entire accident was down

to a single coding error. The Arion 5 reused working software from its predecessor, the Arion 4. Unfortunately, the Arion 5's faster engines caused a

bug that hadn't been found in previous models. The computer systems were essentially only designed to handle the speed increase of the older rockets. So when Arion 5 accelerated much quicker

than the old maximum, the computer's tracking limitations were exceeded. This crashed all the guidance and altitude systems, including the backups, and further misreading of this info on part

of the computer, led to an overcorrection of the thrusters. The rocket veered abruptly and the changing aerodynamic forces tore chunks off of it, rupturing essential electrical links

that triggered the self-destruct sequence. Now, if you're like me, you may be wondering why the rocket even had a self-destruct sequence. The answer is every rocket has one. to ensure that if

it loses control, it will explode in the air over the emptyish area of land around a launch site rather than risking the outofcontrol rocket blasting its

full payload into a city or other settlement. Despite these safety measures though, for the Arion 5, those computer glitches cost the European Space Agency a total of $500 million,

including its incredibly expensive cargo. When cryptocurrency Bitcoin was first invented in 2008, very few people saw the value in it. The decentralized

digital currency hit the market with a value of just 0.008 cents per Bitcoin, and people were pretty slow on the uptake. But

Englishman James Howell saw the currency's potential. The avid IT worker mined more than 7,500 coins in a short span of time. But by

2010, bitcoins still weren't worth much at just 8 cents each. So James restored the private key code required to spend the coins he had mined away on an

external hard drive and briefly forgot about it. But in 2013, he accidentally threw the hard drive away in what would turn out to be a very costly bout of

spring cleaning. Unfortunately for him, 2013 was the year Bitcoin really started to take off. By April, it had reached a peak of $220

per coin, making James' stash worth a phenomenal $1.65 million. But he realized his mistake all too late. He desperately began combing nearby

landfills and dump sites in an attempt to retrieve his missing millions, but has never recovered the lost drive. To really rub salt in the wounds, Bitcoin's price per coin peaked at an unbelievable

124,517 on August 14th, 2025. Meaning that somewhere in an English landfill, an unsuspecting old hard drive

was actually worth a staggering 934 million. That price is expected to climb to $375,000 per coin, meaning it could be worth

around $3 billion. Uh, has anybody got a metal detector I could go borrow? Up next, here's a little lesson from the British on how to waste billions of dollars, or rather

billions of pounds. The highspeed 2 railway, better known as HS2, is a mega project currently underway in England, which aims to make

travel between the north and south way quicker, encouraging the country's economy to thrive along its path. But following cancellation after cancellation, what was originally

planned to look like this ended up looking like this and then this. And currently, it looks like this. The idea for the project emerged in 2009 where

early concepts hoped it would span all the way to Scotland. That was immediately scaled back to top out just beyond the city of Leeds and received official approval in 2012. Initial

forecasts predicted that the project would complete its first phase in 2026 with full completion coming in 2033 under a relatively modest budget of 32.7

billion pounds or around 52 billion bucks. Oh, how wrong they were. In 2018, soon after the first work contracts were

awarded, uncertainty about the northern part of the project began to emerge with politicians arguing against it all together. As news emerged that the budget estimates for acquiring necessary

land and property had been massively inaccurate, the realities of planning also proved much tougher than anticipated. As a result, hoping to allow more time for contractors to cut

their costs, which were currently forecast at a billion dollar over budget, the British government pushed back the expected opening of the first phase from 2026 to between 2028 and

2031. Still, in 2020, construction work was officially underway. This is where the insanely overly optimistic early budget estimates really became obvious. A rush

to begin work also meant contracts were signed and started before designs were stable and construction risks and complexity levels were fully assessed,

meaning prices rapidly grew out of control. 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, often requiring additional rerouting and compensation. By the end of 2021, panic set in as leaked reports predicted the

project was going to cost an eyewatering 106 billion pounds, more than triple the initial estimate. Following that bombshell revelation, the right leg of

the original Y-shaped HS2 rail network plan was shrunk down. And as 2022 came and went, budget spiraled further. and

station by station, more length was cut off from the proposed network map. Eventually, the entire northern branch of the plan, which aimed to span from Birmingham to Manchester, was axed in

2023. The grand project was reduced to a single line between London and Birmingham. The disastrous failure of those now cancelled lines cost the

British taxpaying public an estimated 2 billion pound 2.7 billion in wasted funds and it'll continue to cost them more. The canceled plans are estimated

to cost 100 million in reversal procedures including tasks like filling bore holes. The money already spent on extensive planning and initial now

redundant construction tasks will never be recovered. Just take the plans to integrate London's Houston station into the HS2 for example. The multiple designs for which reportedly cost a

quarter of a billion and were scrapped entirely. Arguably worst of all, more than592 million pounds has been spent on land

that's no longer needed for the shortened project, which included hundreds of homes that owners were forced to sell to make way for HS2. These same homeowners are now being

offered their houses back by the government, albeit at higher prices now that housing markets and inflation have taken their toll. I'd be furious, wouldn't you? Now granted, some of the

spiraling costs of HS2 were hard to predict. Construction costs have risen drastically in the warstricken, pandemic affected, highinflation global economy of the past decade. But there's no doubt

the HS2 project was mismanaged and underestimated to the extreme. And what was meant to be one of Europe's proudest 21st century infrastructure projects has

ultimately become the continent's biggest embarrassment. Most people can only dream about winning the lottery. But for one anonymous retiree in Coventry, England, that dream

very nearly became a reality. In October 2010, the Euromillions jackpot was worth a staggering $145 million, the biggest lottery prize in

British history up to that point. And hopeful ticket holders eagerly waited for their numbers to come up. After the announcement on October 8th, over 1,000 people submitted claims that they were

the possible winner, including a 70-year-old woman who came forward to confess that her husband might have thrown away her winning ticket. She claimed that she played the lottery every week and always wrote down her

numbers in a notepad before passing the ticket to her husband for safekeeping. 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. While some lotteryies allow different forms of proof of purchase, like payment records and CCTV evidence, unfortunately, policy in this case

stated that only the physical ticket itself was valid proof of the win. Devastating. The discarded winnings would have made her the 589th richest

person in Britain, ranking higher than Phil Collins and David Bowie before his death, making this one costly mistake. The story of Spain's supposedly

state-of-the-art submarine, the S81 Isaac Parall, is one of the most embarrassing chapters in the country's military history. The submarine was commissioned in 2013 for the Spanish

Navy. But there's just one problem with its design. Once it's submerged, the Isaac Parall may never be able to resurface again. This is because a

miraculously unnoticed flaw in its design means that the ship is around 75 to 100 tons heavier than its design allowed, which means Spain essentially

invested in a submarine which can only move in one direction down. The mistake is said to have been the result of a pesky decimal point placed in the wrong place during calculations.

And it's a single dot which could cost an extra $9.7 million per meter of the hole which was extended to regain its balance. Considering $680 million had

already been invested in the sub as part of a total $3 billion for a broader underwater fleet, this must have given the person responsible quite the sinking

feeling. The blunder pushed the submarine's official launch date target from 2015 all the way to 2023 and required the intended naval launch

base to be completely reshaped and renovated to accommodate the finalized sub. Ouch. There's something about Snow Crab that

Americans just can't get enough of. Something seafood restaurant chain Red Lobster tried to capitalize on back in 2003. That year, they began offering an

all you can eat crab promotion for just $22.99. Their internal calculations determined that this price, which was just a few dollars more than their regular $14.99

buffet, was high enough to fuel a tasty profit. But they were oh so very wrong. It turned out that the people willing to pay $22.99 were really big fans of snow

crab. Red Lobster's profitable calculations assumed customers would eat up to two plates of crab plus other sides and manes, but they were actually eating more than twice that amount on

average. This is because crab meat isn't thick, so customers were able to eat a lot more before filling up. Not only that, but crab is a fiddly food to eat,

meaning customers were spending much longer at their tables and hence costing restaurants more due to reduced customer turnover. Customers really got their money's worth. Red Lobster, on the other

claw, started hemorrhaging money. They'd inadvertently sparked huge demand for the legs, which are an import item. 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. By the end of just one quarter, the company took a massive $3.3 million loss. This

triggered a cascade effect where Wall Street analysts saw the mismanagement mistake and downgraded their stock price, wiping a huge $400 million off the company's value. That'll teach him

for underestimating the American appetite. When novice hunter Sergio Martinez got lost wandering in the wilds of Southern California back in October 2003, he was convinced he was going to

die. 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. While the fire and smoke he

made did get attention, it wasn't for a good reason. The hastily made signal fires accidentally sparked a huge uncontrollable wildfire which was driven

across the landscape by strong Santa Ana winds. Thanks to this, it quickly spread at a rate of 3600 acres per hour. By the time it was finally contained on

November 4th, it had scorched more than 273,000 acres, an area of land roughly the same size as Hong Kong. 2,820

homes and buildings were destroyed and 15 people tragically lost their lives. Even today, it's widely considered one of the worst wildfires in Californian history. Despite this, Martinez was only

sentenced to serve 6 months in a work furlow program along with 960 hours of community service. While his stupid decision hadn't cost him all that much, insurance losses were estimated at just

over $1 billion in total. That's around 1.76 billion today. In 2003, Loheed Martin space systems company had been

tasked by NASA to work on the Noah Prime weather satellite, a $233 million piece of space technology filled with meticulously calibrated instruments. But

disaster struck when workers were carefully turning the satellite into a horizontal position. The entire structure suddenly toppled over 3 ft to the ground. The damage to all those

delicate systems was severe, and a full inquiry was launched into the mishap. Despite the presence of incredibly smart technicians and engineers, there was a serious lack of procedural discipline

throughout the facility. It turned out that while the turnover cart used during the procedure was in storage, a technician removed 24 bolts which secured the cart's adapter plate, and

all without ever documenting doing so. The team who then used the cart failed to check the bolts before moving the satellite and bingo, multi-million dollar destruction was born. Loheed

Martin had to dig into the profits it had earned. And with a little help from the government, they both footed the astronomical $135 million repair bill. If I was the one

paying that, I think I'd have fallen over. In spring 2014, London welcomed an ambitious new skyscraper to its financial district. The 525 foot tall

reflective building became known as the walkietalkie due to its distinct curved design. But this shiny new tower was hiding a sinister secret. As summer came

around, citizens of London began complaining that the building's south-facing concave surface was causing powerful rays of sunlight at certain points of the day, which could raise the

temperature to an unheard of 158° F. The highly concentrated beam was capable of melting tiles, causing a small fire on the doormat of a barber shop, and

melting a Jaguar XJ belonging to a local businessman. while one journalist even attempted to fry an egg in the extreme heat. The newly nicknamed Walky Scorchy

had to be stopped. So, a permanent sun shade was attached to the building between the 3rd and 34th floors over the course of 6 months, costing over $12 million. A hard pill to swallow

considering the building already cost over $250 million to build. Ironically, the architect Raphael Vignoli also designed the Vidara Hotel in Las Vegas,

which suffered a similar problem as it singed sunbathers, earning it the nickname the death ray. Vign confessed that he knew this would happen, but that he didn't have the tools to analyze just

how bad it would be. Someone needs to tell this guy to stop designing super weapons instead of buildings. On May 10th, 2000, a wildfire known as the

Serero Grand Fire became one of the most destructive events the state of Mexico has ever seen. The blaze was intended as a deliberate controlled burn during a 10-year plan to protect the Bandelier

National Monument and reduce the natural fire hazards in its surrounding areas. Drought conditions in the late 90s made the area tinder dry and subject to

possible ignition under unexpected circumstances like a lightning strike. So Bandelier officials hoped the controlled burn would thin the coniferous and grassy areas.

Unfortunately, they didn't account for high winds on the Sero Grand Summit where the fire was started, and the blaze quickly ripped through 150,000 acres of land, destroying 400 homes and

damaging many other structures, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Thankfully, no lives were lost, but after multiple evacuations, the fire was not declared fully

extinguished until the 20th of July, by which point the damage was irreversible. Officials were faced with harsh criticism for proceeding with the fire despite the contradictory weather

conditions and the US General Accounting Office has estimated that the total damages cost around $1 billion. The tallest dam in the United States,

the Orville Dam, was a $25 million response to more than $200 million in property damage because of flooding in Northern and Central California between

1955 and 1956. The dam did its job for 49 years until the winter of 2017. Due to the heavy rain, the reservoir's water

levels rose dangerously, draining gradually by the dam spillway. But suddenly, a crack appeared in the spillway, and not long after, it had

grown into a 250 ft crater. In a state of panic, officials shut off the water to the main spillway, but the reservoir's water level continued to rise. The only safety mechanism was a

neverused emergency spillway designed to funnel water into the nearby Feather River. However, as water flowed down the emergency spillway, it caused erosion,

threatening to break the entire dam and spill out into devastating floods. Thankfully, the dam held and the 188,000 evacuated people were allowed to safely

return. After a thorough investigation, it was revealed the entire ordeal was totally preventable. Why? Because the spillway had been built on unstable bedrock. As a result, the concrete

separating trillions of gallons of rushing water from the bedrock over the years had worn paper thin, and a series of systematic failings meant no one had bothered to check it thoroughly for

almost 50 years. The damage was devastating, repairs costing a monumental $1.1 billion, a $455 million hike from the initial

estimate. For a dam that cost $25 million bucks, those are some costly repairs. The Lotus Riverside complex in Shanghai was an ambitious project which

ended in complete disaster because of one simple mistake. The residential complex was comprised of 11 new high-rise apartment blocks. But around 5:00 a.m. on the 27th of June, 2009,

one of the 13story buildings suddenly collapsed, miraculously missing the surrounding blocks and avoiding a devastating domino effect. 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. Investigations found that the freak accident was caused by

non-compliance with construction standards and some seriously shoddy foundations. Earth beneath the building was excavated to make a 15 ft underground car park and the soil had

been piled up 32 ft on a nearby riverbank which then crumbled under the pressure allowing water to spread into the ground beneath the building. These muddy foundations caused the building to

topple over in a southerntherly direction. But simply moving the Earth elsewhere could have prevented the whole ordeal. 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, including construction costs and compensation to the wouldbe homeowners of the

apartments. In 1992, the Spanish city of Seville hosted a World's Fair exhibition intended to showcase the greatest achievements of the world's nations, and

it was an insanely costly nightmare. Located on an island in a river running through the city, the exhibition's 100 plus pavilions were incredibly

ambitious. Too ambitious. Not all pavilions were paid for by Spain, but they funded and promoted the main thematic ones, including the Grand Future Plaza. The Seivil government also

poured in money to construct Montreals and cable cars for folks to get around the expo, as well as five multi-million bridges connecting the island to the city, railways, highways, and a new

airport. All in all, the bold plan came in at over €7 billion, some of which the city hopes to recoup from ticket sales, foreign investment in the area, and tourism. Taxpayers weren't

so optimistic. Locals interviewed at the time complained the project drained money from social programs and doubled their cost of living. Critics also suggested the construction contracts

were murky and linked to corruption concerns with the government at the time. But controversy aside, the real trouble began before the exhibition even opened. One of the intended

centerpieces, the Discovery Pavilion, was destroyed in a fire just before the expo started due to seemingly insufficient safety monitoring of welded

work inside. In spite of that, the expo launched on the 20th of April and seemed to be a roaring success. 240,000 paying visitors each day amounted to 41 million

total by the end of the run, more than Spain's entire population at the time. But it wasn't enough. These guests fell short of projected figures of 60 million

guests, a near 20 million strong gap of potential hotel renters, restaurant visitors, and general money spenders Seville had needed. Organizers had projected revenues of about $631 million

from ticket sales and over a billion more from non-government investments. But despite the events multi-billion dollar infrastructure builds and associated city renovations being

largely financed by the Spanish government and its subdivisions, the city of Seville itself was actually still left with a debt of $422 million

and a site no one knew what to do with. Most foreign pavilions were deconstructed soon afterwards by the countries that paid for them. Other developments stayed up intended to find

some usage which never came leaving them empty, derelictked and wasted to this day. In Seville, people still tour the expo grounds where among the dilapidated

forms a small handful of pavilions are reportedly being renovated while some are now used as offices. But for many of those costly pavilions intended to put Seville on the map long term, their

decaying shells are seen as a sign of over ambitious, overly expensive, failed project long gone to waste. Up next is a tale of astonishing incompetency and

probable corruption that cost taxpayers billions. In 1990, the government of Thailand awarded Hong Kong-based property developers, Hopewell Holdings,

a contract to build and operate a mass transit railway system in Bangkok. The project was intended to span 37 mi of elevated track built to top the

infrastructure of existing train lines, linking the Don Wong airport with the city, among other improvements. This $3.2 $2 billion deal took place during a time of major corruption scandals in the

government and without thorough investigations into the feasibility of the project nor a timeline for its completion. Eyebrows were being raised right from the start. Construction of

the so-called Bangkok elevated road and train system kicked off at a snail's pace because it had been approved before ownership of the involved land was

completely secured. It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for them. >> Progress, if you can call it that, was also massively affected by repeated

changes in government leadership. Seeing the project completely halted and restarted a number of times as funding was gutted and reinstated. The first part of the project was meant to be up

and running by December 1995, with the remainder finished by December 1999. However, when a continentwide financial crisis struck in 1997, work stopped

entirely, revealing the bombshell update that the project was only 10% complete. Hopewell's execs blamed the Thai government's land acquisition issues for

the lack of progress, while Thai officials stated that Hopewell had mismanaged funds and run out of moola. Either way, in 1998, the State Railway

of Thailand voted to officially scrap the project, arguing that the agonizingly slow pace thus far would have made it impossible for Hopewell to honor the construction contract in

reasonable time. Both sides decided they were owed financial compensation from the other, initiating a legal back and forth that would last decades. By 2010,

the slew of legal wins, losses, and reversals saw the monetary figures reach astronomical heights with Hopewell seeking upwards of $1 billion in

compensation for wrongful termination of their contract and the State Railway of Thailand counter seeking $6 billion in lost business and damages. Court

decisions seem to favor Hopewell up until 2023, at which point the Thai courts ruled that Hopewell's case for compensation was invalid.

The result, neither side owed the other anything. They just had to sit with the costs they'd incurred over decades of legal strife. For the state railway of Thailand, that included all the initial

taxpayer funded construction and land acquisition, not to mention 20 years of legal fees at the corporate level and decades of wasted development potential in a major city. Big yikes. Specific

incurred costs have never been publicly released, but if the state railways likely exaggerated counter suit claims were even anywhere close to reflecting their actual incurred costs, they could

have easily been in the hundreds of millions, if not billions. The project left over 1,000 concrete pillars standing as useless eyes along the

planned routes, often referred to mockingly as Thailand Stonehenge. One section of the derelict Hopewell structure even collapsed in 2012. Pretty

apt considering the financial damage the project did to the city. While much of the Hopewell project was demolished in the ensuing years, a $6.3 million process again out of the taxpayers's

pocket, quite a lot of the remaining pillars are reportedly in usable condition. But they're just standing there. All thanks to what critics argue is at best insanely incompetent

government management or at worst international political corruption on the part of those handing out construction contracts back in the '90s. A conclusion either way would require a

thorough unbiased investigation. But what is clear is that the feasibility of the project was never properly assessed and was left wide open to failure in the

changing tides of Thai politics and ultimately the taxpayers paid the price quite literally. In 2011, the local government decided that Glen Karen Tower

in Motherwell, Scotland, was too ugly, unsafe, and dilapidated to continue being a blot on the urban landscape. With refurbishments priced at 10

million, roughly $13 million, North Lannarchshire Council determined the best course of action was outright demolition. But that plan then ran into

numerous costing issues. The original demolition price was already seriously hefty at just under a million dollars. But when a deadly asbestous was identified throughout the tower, another

500,000 bucks was added to the bill. Now, that might not look like much when compared to the billions we've seen wasted on some projects so far. But keep in mind, this is all relative. A million

dollars is a lot to knock down lowcost housing with most homes only costing about $10,000 a piece to demolish by comparison. Complimenting the incredible

costs, Glen Karen Tower went down in a truly incredible demolition. Well, while it may have cost 166% of the

initial estimates and was never replaced by more lowcost housing, at least we got a cool video out of it. Until September 2021, Kunming, the capital of China's

Yunan Province, was home to 15 high-rise buildings owned by Yunan Hungi Real Estate. However, the volatility of the property market in China meant that the

buildings, which cost 1 billion Chinese yuan, or roughly 157 million, were left unoccupied for 8 years. After the

construction company in charge ran out of money in 2013, the basement of these buildings became submerged in rainwater, causing irreparable damage. With maintenance costs rising and money on

the project hemorrhaging, there was only one option left, a demolition derby. And the eye-catching collapse, the

buildings were torn to the ground in just 45 seconds using more than 6 tons of explosives placed at 85,000 blasting points. Man, 157 million bucks

is a lot of money to spend on a very big pile of rubble. When it opened in 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington cost $6.4 million to build. That means

if it was built today, it would cost a whopping $148 million. At the time, it was the third longest suspension bridge in the world by main span, with only the

Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and NYC's George Washington Bridge outspanning this mega project. 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. The workers continued to follow the design regardless, giving the bridge the nickname galloping Gertie. Poor Gertie

wouldn't be galloping for long, however, as just over 4 months after the bridge opened to the public, it spectacularly collapsed into the water below. But how could such a collapse be allowed to

happen? Well, Galloping Gertie was the first bridge to be built with large beams of carbon steel anchored in concrete blocks. Preceding bridges had typically used open trusses, a framework

designed for structure support. The new design had the effect of diverting wind both above and below the bridge, resulting in a swaying effect. One day,

the swaying developed into a dramatic twisting called aerrolastic fluttering, whereby each twisting motion left the bridge in a more severe angle for the wind to act upon. In the vicious

self-escalating feedback loop that ensued, the bridge twisted beyond its limits and support cables and girders failed, resulting in a dramatic, terrifying collapse. And so, the

Tacomaos Bridge went down to its watery grave. There were no fatalities, but the last person to come across the bridge, Leonard Coatsworth, lost both his car and his dog, Tubby. 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. But it wouldn't bring Tubby back. If you're

craving even more expensive blunders, check out this video about the most ridiculous mega projects of all time. Thanks for watching and I'll catch you soon.

Heat.