1 killed, 4 injured in South China expressway ramp collapse

[lordsutch]

Story here. The bridge that collapsed was apparently built 10 years ago.

[SignGeek101]

Oops. A new bridge such as this? Sub par concrete or materials perhaps. Someone should be held accountable.

[jakeroot]

Someone should be held accountable.

Most likely, they'll be executed.

[mgk920]

From what I've seen of chatter regarding this, there were four big-rig trucks that were each about 2.5 times their legal weight on it at the same time.

Mike

[jakeroot]

From what I've seen of chatter regarding this, there were four big-rig trucks that were each about 2.5 times their legal weight on it at the same time.

Mike

Sounds like Asia:

[cpzilliacus]

This generated a long thread on Freeway Jim on Facebook. 

What is lacking in China (and probably some other Asian nations) is truck weight enforcement.  That would prevent a lot of this sort of dangerous and damaging and illegal behavior. 

[bing101]

This generated a long thread on Freeway Jim on Facebook. 

What is lacking in China (and probably some other Asian nations) is truck weight enforcement.  That would prevent a lot of this sort of dangerous and damaging and illegal behavior.

Well in the freewayjim posts there were fears that here in the USA we might have some soul searching to do if something like that happened in the USA.

[Duke87]

What is lacking in China (and probably some other Asian nations) is truck weight enforcement.  That would prevent a lot of this sort of dangerous and damaging and illegal behavior.

Indeed. Anything will collapse if you put enough weight on it.

Shoddy construction certainly does happen in China, but appears to not be the problem here.

[iBallasticwolf2]

"Made in China"

Although I would guess that the road built was of decent quality. As others said it is most likely due to the trucks carrying too much weight.

[Chris]

Shoddy construction certainly does happen in China, but appears to not be the problem here.

From what I've read, shoddy construction practices seems to happen mostly with municipal infrastructure. Practically all expressways are toll roads, many of which already operate at a loss, so they don't want to spend money every year to reconstruct collapsed bridges.

Then there's also the 'age' problem. The first generation of expressways in China, built before 2000, had less optimal design standards, and perhaps some lower construction quality as well. While a 1990s freeway seems young to us, these are old by Chinese standards.