A year after a deadly high-speed train accident occurred in the eastern city of Wenzhou, a portion of one of the longest bridges in northern China collapsed on Friday, reigniting concerns over infrastructure built at breakneck speed in recent years.
Keith Bradsher reports on the deadly failure of a bridge over the Songhua River in the city of Harbin completed just nine months ago, "triggering a storm of criticism from Chinese Internet users and
underscoring questions about the quality of construction in China's
rapid expansion of its infrastructure."
"China's massive economic stimulus program
in 2009 and 2010 helped the country avoid most of the effects of the
global economic downturn, but involved incurring heavy debt to pay for
the rapid construction of new bridges, highways and high-speed rail lines all over the country," writes Bradsher. And a spate of failures have raised questions, both outside China and inside, as to the quality of materials used during construction and whether projects were properly engineered.
"According to the official Xinhua news agency, the Yangmingtan Bridge was
the sixth major bridge in China to collapse since July 2011. Chinese
officials have tended to blame the collapses on overloaded trucks, and
did so again on Friday."
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