An investigation into what caused a viaduct to collapse on Monday evening injuring 19 workers, five seriously, began Tuesday, the municipal government said.
Shenzhen government are taking charge of the team investigating the accident that happened during the construction of the Yantian-Bagang Expressway.
The expressway is one of the key construction projects in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province in South China, which takes pride in the quality of its building work, a local official said.
The collapse was suspected to have been caused by damaged cast iron in the south of the bridge, but it has not been confirmed whether bad workmanship or a mishap in design were to blame.
The bridge was designed by the Design Institute of Shenzhen under the Ministry of Railways and was constructed by a company of the China Railway Construction Group.
The bridge, which was still under construction near Yantian port, Yantian District, caved in at 9:45 pm on Monday.
Witnesses said a 30-meter-wide and 50-meter-long section of the bridge broke into a V-shape.
The 60 workers on the bridge fell to the ground where some were pinned down under the fallen irons.
The injured were rescued immediately and treated in local hospitals.
Tan Guoxiang, a Shenzhen government official, said the rescuers were timely and efficient.
More than 10 ambulances, police and transportation officers arrived to help with the rescue.
The bridge was located at the beginning of the Yantian-Bagang expressway, which aims to improve the transport conditions in eastern Shenzhen when its first phase is completed before year-end.
The 28.9-km expressway links the port of Yantian and the city of Huizhou.
The nearly 2-billion-yuan (US$240 million) project is expected to boost tourism and the economy in Shenzhen's eastern areas.
(China Daily 11/29/2000)
