The opposite is also true. I have designed several roof-top observatories for colleges/universities. My experience with construction types is that no matter what is on the plans, they will build it the way they dang well please, likely the way they have "always done things". As an example, you can't run hard conduit attached to the underside of the observing floor and attach it directly to the telescope pier. It will transmit all manner of mechanical vibrations making the telescope at best compromised, and at worst totally useless. Yet on more than one one project I can name, the construction people ignored the plans and did it their way, causing rework and additional cost. There are many other examples, not just from my projects, but from my colleagues who do the same kind of design. The designing of observatories is a teeny, tiny field, so if the contractors are screwing up our designs, imagine what they do to other stuff. These were NOT "engineer's daydream" items that are hard or impossible to build. They were simple things that should have just been done as designed, period. I once threatened to camp out on the job site to make sure things got done right. I didn't, but I doubt it would have helped. What I've taken away from all this is that contractors are generally lazy, unwilling to try anything new, and on top of that, the people that work for them aren't exactly very good at following instructions or even reading plans.
There also exist many "engineering disasters" that were not in fact due to bad engineering. They were disasters because the contractors built something the way they wanted to, NOT the way it was designed in the first place. Then the engineers generally get blamed, at least by the public.
