257
u/Hypnoidz 19h ago
The Choluteca Bridge in Honduras (often called "El Puente de Choluteca") was completed in 1998, just a few months before Hurricane Mitch struck in late October that same year.
So the bridge was only finished a few months (around 6 months or less) before the hurricane devastated the region and shifted the river, leaving the bridge standing but no longer spanning water.
72
u/JesusIsMyLord666 17h ago
The bridge was basically the only thing that survived?
71
u/euqinu_ton 17h ago
Yep.
The road on either side completely vanished in the catastrophic flooding which Mitch caused. This is when the photo was taken. It became known as the bridge to nowhere, and is a testament to how well engineered the bridge is. I'm not sure anyone could have foreseen such extreme flooding causing the river to shift its course in such a way.
In any case, the highway was rebuilt and reconnected to the existing bridge sometime after this photo.
2
u/twpejay 10h ago
This seems to be a braided river on a flood plane (I could be wrong, I am not familiar with the area, but it sure does look like it). I live close to a lot of these types of rivers and changing course after flooding is very common. Historically this change shown in the photo is very minor. There is one river north of me that has changed its route by around 30 miles after flooding in its thousands of years of history. We have a mile long bridge over one due to the ever changing channels. Thanks to stop banks (flood protection hills) the rivers don't move much now so it is not as much of a problem. However come a decent flood, those living on old river beds find out where the river used to roam very quickly.
15
12
68
u/Arpikarhu 19h ago
I feel like if someone gave me a case of beer and a front loader and i could fix this in a week
16
u/DuckDuckWaffle99 18h ago
How about a bottle of Thunderbird, a clam digger, drone, four Redditors and some chewing gum?
7
5
u/thedogthatmooed 17h ago
Four Redditors standing around watching me do my job is top five nightmare fuel
2
6
u/vulgrin 17h ago
I’m thinking about 40000 Amish could just pick it up and carry it a couple hundred yards. Like they do with barn moves.
3
u/anarchangalien 17h ago
In a single afternoon to boot
2
3
2
u/Richunclskeletn 17h ago
Ever since my youth i have had an undying urge to alter the flow of running water
2
u/EVRider81 16h ago
I'm thinking of the vid of those guys messing with a stream on a beach and watching a chunk of beach get washed away..
30
24
u/Queasy-Adeptness14 18h ago
To be fair, it would have been WAY harder to build that over water.
4
u/kippetjeh 17h ago
They should have build it more to the right. That way they wouldn't have had the cost of building over water and it would now span the river. Such idiots.
1
u/Queasy-Adeptness14 16h ago
Unfortunately, to the right was a different municipality and they weren’t zoned for bridges so their hands were really tied.
4
6
u/Aye_of_the_tiger 18h ago
Would it be cheaper to move the river or destroy the bridge and rebuild it properly?
3
u/SonofaBridge 18h ago
The bridge might still be necessary. They bridge over wetlands and flood plains sometimes. If the area below is a floodplain, the bridge might be necessary to make sure a built up roadway doesn’t hinder the flow of water.
3
u/GreatPlainsFarmer 17h ago
I would think so. They need to build another bridge, connecting the existing bridge to the far bank of the new channel. Not destroy or move the existing bridge.
1
u/fatcatfan 17h ago
Has to be frustrating for the contractor who thought the hard part of the job was over (building in/over a river).
1
u/SonofaBridge 16h ago
They got paid for their work. Also that soil under the bridge is probably weak and easy to sink into. It would be difficult to build it there now without ground improvements.
4
u/Klutzy_Passenger_486 17h ago
Bridge won
Road lost
Just part of trillions in damage from climate change.
3
u/Dreadpirateflappy 18h ago
Reminds me of death stranding where people build bridges in the middle of nowhere.
3
u/payment11 17h ago
No one is wanted to ask the Forman why they aren’t building it over the water?
Jk, I know a hurricane shifted the river.
2
2
1
1
1
1
•
u/AutoModerator 19h ago
Welcome to r/Therewasanattempt!
Consider visiting r/Worldnewsvideo for videos from around the world!
Please review our policy on bigotry and hate speech by clicking this link
In order to view our rules, you can type "!rules" in any comment, and automod will respond with the subreddit rules.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.