‘Mountain’s problem’ or design flaw? Dramatic collapse of new bridge in China raises questions
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A portion of the bridge, which was completed only in January, caved in on Nov 11 and caused a cloud of dust.
PHOTOS: REUTERS
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BEIJING – The shocking collapse of a bridge in China after a landslide has raised questions about its construction process and whether geological studies to assess the site were rigorous enough.
The 758m Hongqi Bridge was completed only in January and opened to traffic in April. Dramatic footage of a portion of it caving in at around 4pm on Nov 11
Located in the mountainous Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, in north-west Sichuan province, the bridge was built with a reported investment of some 300 million yuan (S$55 million).
Municipal authorities told Chinese media that preliminary investigations revealed the collapse was caused by a landslide on an adjacent mountain that had intensified. The prefecture’s transportation bureau said the collapse was not related to the quality issues with the bridge.
No casualties were reported, largely thanks to an evacuation organised a day earlier after cracks were found on the road surface.
But Chinese netizens have asked whether the accident was preventable, with geological assessments that should have taken into account the area’s landslide-prone conditions.
The Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture is prone to earthquakes and landslides as the region sits above a major fault line. In 2022, a series of earthquakes at Barkam county there affected more than 25,000 people.
“Indeed it is the mountain’s problem,” said a user from Shanghai sarcastically, commenting on a news report about the accident.
“It is obviously a design flaw; how can changes in the mountainside be blamed? Is there any mountain that does not deform?” asked another.
Many other comments on China’s highly regulated social media praised local authorities for the quick evacuation, but also questioned how a major infrastructural project that had only been recently completed could have collapsed.
Jimu News, an outlet under the state-owned Hubei Daily Media Group, cited a bridge expert as saying that the route selection for bridges must avoid potential geological hazards as much as possible.
The expert said that typically, a geological survey would be done to select sites for bridge construction, including whether the area is prone to landslides, in order to assess the suitability of the chosen route.
“If the Hongqi bridge route is the optimal one, then efforts should have focused on slope management,” the expert added, without commenting on whether the collapse was due to failures in design.
A WeChat article by the Sichuan Road and Bridge Corporation had on Jan 17 described the bridge, located in the reservoir area of the Shuangjiangkou dam, as a key transportation link connecting Barkam, Jinchuan and Rangtang counties.
It added that the project team had overcome numerous challenges during construction, such as the steep terrain, high slopes, low temperatures and high altitudes.
The construction and design of the bridge was managed by the state-owned Chengdu Engineering Corporation, a subsidiary of China Power Construction Corporation that is supervised by the national State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
Other references to the project appear to have been deleted.
A Jan 17 article announcing the final concrete pouring for the bridge on the official website of the Sichuan Expressway Construction and Development Group, which builds highways in the province, can no longer be accessed.
