The media sternly warned that China may face a peak of bridge disasters in the next ten years

> The media sternly warned that China may face a peak of bridge disasters in the next ten years. Article source: Apple Daily on 2013-02-07 15:55:46…

> First of all, common sense tells us that the number of casualties cannot be the 20 people officially stated. Twenty-five cars, even if all without passengers, should have at least twenty-five drivers. They were blown ten stories to the ground, and they should be dead or injured. Most of the vehicles that fell under the bridge were severely deformed, let alone people. Therefore, there was no way that there were only twenty casualties! Nearby villagers who rushed to the scene to rescue people immediately rescued four people in one of the private cars. A few hours after the incident, local media reported that 26 people were dead. Later, the official government continued to revise the number of casualties downwards, and even the driver of the fireworks truck was not on the list. Obviously, the official underreported the number of casualties. It is easy to think that there is something wrong with them?

Secondly, blowing up a bridge is a very professional job. Demolition experts must first find the supporting points, drill holes, bury explosives, and detonate them at the same time. Only then can they blow up an 80-meter-long bridge deck and a supporting pier. Now, a firework truck carrying a load of five tons can actually do what only blasting experts can do. Unless China has secretly developed a new type of fireworks that are as powerful as missiles, it only means that the quality of the bridge is very problematic, and it is time to die even without fireworks. In fact, what can be seen from the remains of the bridge deck and piers are only a few and very young iron branches, instead of the usual densely packed steel bars. Don't forget that the fireworks did not explode at the same time, but one by one. The destructive power cannot be compared with the same amount of explosives.

These signs show that the Yichang Bridge, which has been open to traffic for 12 years, has serious problems with its quality or design. According to statistics from netizens, 37 bridges collapsed across the country in the past five years, with an average of one collapse every two months. In only three of these cases, officials were held accountable. Most of the shoddy projects involving shoddy work involve official corruption. Public projects such as bridges, highways, and flood control embankments are the hardest hit areas. The local transportation departments responsible for building and supervising highways and bridges are also the hardest hit areas when corruption is exposed.

Since 1997, 22 transportation directors in more than a dozen provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country have been dismissed because of their involvement in highway projects. Among them, four consecutive transportation directors in Henan Province in the past 16 years were dismissed due to corruption. The Yichang Bridge where the accident occurred was built when Zhang Kuntong, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment, was the director of the Henan Department of Transportation.

If the life span of a normal tofu bridge is about ten years, the next ten years will still be the peak period for bridge collapse and bridge destruction. I pray that nothing will happen to these shoddy projects during the Spring Festival, otherwise the casualties will be even greater!