A railway steel truss arch bridge section being erected in the predawn hours Aug. 22 plummeted into a river in Northwest China, killing at least 12 workers, news agencies reported. Daytime photos became available today.
Four more workers are believed to be missing.
China’s CCTV news reported that a cable failure was a triggering cause that sent the central portion of an arch plunging into the Jianzha Yellow River in Qinghai Province.
“In the early morning hours of Friday,” said a statement from CCTV on the Global Times website, “a construction cable” being used “snapped while under construction.” The accompanying video footage showed the bridge section falling away.
The bridge is part of the Qinghai section of the Sichuan-Qinghai Railway.
Information about what happened remains limited. The website for CBS News, citing the People’s Daily as the source, said the bridge was China’s first railway steel truss arch bridge over the Yellow River, and would be the world’s longest-span double-track continuous steel truss arch bridge.
