China bridge collapse

Theres's a telling parallel between the recent catastrophic bridge collapse in Minneapolis and this story (http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2148487,00.html) from China - our own infrastructure is at risk from aging and the lack of funding required for maintenance, but China's bridges, though newly constructed, are in danger of having been built too quickly:

At least 22 people were killed today when a newly-built bridge collapsed in central China, raising fresh concerns about safety standards amid a nationwide construction boom.

Just weeks before it was scheduled to open, the 328m stone bridge over the River Tuo in central Hunan province broke apart and fell into the waters below.

More than 100 workers were removing scaffolding when the accident happened, and the death toll could rise significantly higher. According to local media, 22 people were injured and 46 are still missing.

Most of the workers were local farmers, supplementing their incomes by labouring on the bridge, which was designed to improve transport links in Fenghuang - a popular tourist spot...

It is the second fatal accident this year involving a bridge collapse. Nine people were killed in June when a section of a bridge in Guangdong province collapsed after a cargo vessel ran into one of its pillars.

Amid a period of breakneck economic growth, local media have expressed concern that some contractors may be cutting corners in the rush to build bridges, roads and tower blocks, while local governments put too much emphasis on new projects while failing to invest properly in maintaining old structures.

According to The China Daily, the government has catergorised 6,300 bridges as dangerous because of structural damage.

Xiao Rucheng, the secretary general of China's Institute of Bridge and Structural Engineering, was quoted as saying that many of the country's new bridges were being built too quickly and were poorly designed.

Other architects said there may be more accidents now, but the main reason is that there are more projects. "China has done a good job of managing rapid construction growth," said Huang Nannan, an associate at Arup. "But there not enough attention is paid to the technical review of small and medium-sized projects."

Mr Huang said China had been building stone arch bridges for hundreds of years. "In this accident, we have lost face because modern engineers did a worse job than our ancestors."[Edit by="rrobinson on Aug 14, 7:54:41 AM"][/Edit]