We’d like to give a big FAIL to those who approved the new $260 million cruise ship terminal in Shanghai, China.

Apparently, the part of the harbor where the new terminal is located is fenced in by the 165-foot high Yangpu Bridge.

This bridge is so low that one-third of the existing cruise ships in the world can’t fit under it, and two-thirds of those currently being built are too tall as well.

Most smaller ships can just about squeeze through, but not easily.

Maneuverability depends on tide levels and weather conditions, which could severely limit the number of cruise lines which are willing to use the port.

Engineers blame short-sighted city and district government officials for hurriedly green-lighting the terminal’s construction without understanding the ramifications, in order to attract developers to the surrounding areas. Port authority officials claim that the low bridge won’t have too much adverse impact because the China market is relatively new to cruise companies, who would be unlikely to use the port anyway.

Now there’s some outstanding “deflective” logic.

The runner-up in the Travel Fail Awards is Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan. The airport is built on a man-made island in Osaka Bay which is sinking at the rate of several centimeters a year. Though engineers predicted the sinkage, it ended up happening at a much faster rate than originally anticipated.

Furthermore, the airport, which was one of the most expensive civil works project in modern history at a cost of $14 billion, has never turned a profit and has had trouble competing with other nearby airports such as Chubu Centrair International Airport opened in Nagoya, and Kobe Airport, which is less than 20 miles away.

The opening of Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 earlier this year surely rates an honorable mention as well. Though things have smoothed out from the opening-day meltdown, operations at the terminal completely collapsed within hours of its opening, after baggage sorting systems got backlogged, dozens of flights were cancelled and the computer systems failed. The result was a mountain of unsorted bags and thousands of angry stranded customers.

Link: National Public Radio, BBC, New York Times

By Karen Elowitt for PeterGreenberg.com.

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