More than 6,000 damaged or dangerous bridges will be fixed or
rebuilt under an ambitious plan to make China's major roadways
safer by 2010.
The Ministry of Communications' announcement follows the June 15
collapse of Jiujiang Bridge in Guangdong Province after a cargo
vessel struck it, killing nine people.
The collapse of the 40-year-old Minneapolis Bridge in the United
States on August 1 also highlighted the need to fix decaying public
infrastructure before it is too late.
Figures from the ministry's annual report on road maintenance
found that by the end of 2006, some 6,300 of China's 500,000 or so
bridges were graded "fifth rank", defined as "in dangerous status
with some important structural components seriously damaged".
"China should learn a lesson from the collapse of the
Mississippi bridge, and accelerate the inspection of unsafe
bridges," Xiao Rucheng, secretary-general of the Institute of
Bridge and Structural Engineering affiliated to the China Civil
Engineering Society, said.
The Ministry of Communications plans to render safe all bridges
on state and provincial highways as well as a majority on county
roads in three years.
"Priority will be given to unsafe bridges on state highways and
bridges with long spans," it said in a document.
The ministry has given guidelines to local bureaus to inspect
the status of bridges. It will also fund the projects, though it
declined to reveal the total figure.
From 2000 to 2005, the ministry spent 15 billion yuan ($1.97
billion) to repair 7,000 bridges. It also put in place a
maintenance system requiring all highway and toll road operation
companies to employ bridge engineers to monitor the structures.
China has built many of its bridges in the past two decades,
said Xiao, who is also a professor at Shanghai-based Tongji
University.
"In the past, designing a bridge needed at least one year, but
now it usually takes one month. You can even find bridge designers
working overnight to finish the task."
Construction companies sometimes rush their work, possibly
leading to design and building flaws, he added.
"I once saw workers asked to join the two sections of a new
bridge during a severe typhoon, simply because the construction
schedule was set a long time earlier. Cracks are very likely to
emerge if concrete is poured in such weather," he said.
Other problems include natural corrosion, age, structural cracks
and outdated design standards.
"Many bridges were designed and built 20 years ago, when
designers did not predict the huge traffic flows today," he
said.
Such factors have led to a number of bridge collapses, whose
number is difficult to calculate because of local government
cover-ups, he said.
(China Daily August 14, 2007)