![]() ![]() Usually such failure is attributed to culture, or “externalities”, not failures in planning. We take this argument a logical step further and point out that failure to complete the railway between Burma and Yunnan is yet another example of how such modernist projects fail, despite technical capabilities and market incentives. All emphasize the strength of remote farming societies relative to intruding modernity. ![]() Tony Waters ( 2007, 2018) wrote about the catastrophic clash between modern capitalist markets and independent peasantries in Scotland, North America, Tanzania, Congo, and Burma. Scott ( 1998, 2009) in Southeast Asia, and Goran Hyden ( 1983) in East Africa. Among many authors who have a similar approach are James C. Rather, we demonstrate that gross oversimplifications and blindness to socio-political realities often inhibit planning bureaucracies from fully “seeing” relevant externalities. Hence, this article explores the historical significance of the Gokteik Viaduct railway bridge and demonstrates through case-study narrative that technical engineering capability is not the sole factor in determining the success or failure of large infrastructure projects. It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that relatively little discussion has explored how even the most advanced planning and engineering technologies have for more than 130 years failed to construct a continuous railway to link Burma with southwestern China. Most recently, the Burmese army’s coup d’état in 2021 again dashed China’s hopes of a high-speed railway to the Indian Ocean as well as other development projects throughout Burma. Moreover, the Gokteik Viaduct is a relevant case study for anyone involved in engineering, public administration, and various forms of development work, including Chinese and Burmese officials whose ambitious plans to complete a twenty-first-century, high-speed railway by 2015 have so far failed to come to fruition. While these particulars may seem trivial to the casual tourist, we argue that the story of this bridge has timely relevance to inform ongoing infrastructure projects such as China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” and related Chinese ambitions to develop ports and gas fields in eastern Burma. Of additional historical interest is that the bridge was fabricated in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, USA, and erected in a remarkably short duration of nine months ( The Pennsylvania Steel Company 1902). ![]() What remains underappreciated to many visitors, however, is that at the time of its opening ceremony in 1901, the Gokteik Viaduct was the longest railway trestle bridge in the world and regarded as the linchpin for connecting Kunming, China, to Burma’s seaport in Rangoon. This raises an ironic question: How could engineers construct such a remarkable bridge to service a railway that was never finished? Furthermore, why does the Gokteik Viaduct largely remain unexamined in terms of its noteworthy place in the geopolitics of Southeast Asia? In answering such questions, the authors conclude that the “unseen” story of the Gokteik Viaduct is not only about engineering prowess but of a political and social environment that continues to bedevil massive infrastructure projects in Upper Burma today.Īs a tall and slender structure that spans 2260 feet and boasts a maximum superstructure height of 320 feet, the Gokteik Viaduct railway bridge is a thrilling attraction for the few tourists who travel to the Shan hills region of northern Burma. Until now, however, scarce research has explored the Gokteik Viaduct in terms of historicity and factors that ultimately prevented this structure from fulfilling its intended purpose of transporting trainloads of marketable goods between Burma and Yunnan. As an engineering marvel of its era, the Gokteik Viaduct is in the same category as the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Under rather contentious circumstances, the British government awarded an American steel company with the contract to construct what would become the world’s longest railway trestle bridge at the time of its completion in 1900. This article explores technical and socio-political factors that impacted construction of the Gokteik Viaduct railway bridge in Shan State, Burma, and the recurring failure of political powers to complete a continuous railway between Rangoon (Yangon) and Yunnan. ![]()
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