In China, a railway bridge under construction on the yellow river collapsed: the accident occurred around 03:00 in the morning (local time, 9 pm in Italy on August 22) and caused the death of 12 workers, while 4 are still missing. The infrastructure, which is located in the northwestern province of Qinghai, was about to be completed and should have been part of the Sichuan-Qinghai railway line, which will connect the Tibetan plateau with the Chinese high speed.
The infrastructure has been under construction since November 2024: once completed, it will be the largest double -track continuous railway bridge in the world, as well as the first railway bridge of this type to cross the yellow river.
In a video published by the CCTV state broadcaster, it is possible to see the central part of the arc of the bridge while suddenly yields, falling into the yellow river: according to the local media, 91 rescue vehicles, 27 boats, 1 helicopter and 800 rescuers would have intervened on the site.
The government has started an investigation to establish the causes of the accident: the information available is still scarce, but according to the local press agency Xinhua the collapse would be attributed to the breakdown of a steel cable, which would have caused the collapse of the 108 -meter steel beam. Specifically, the project provides for the construction of an arched structure (which allows you to transfer part of the weight and loads to horizontal forces, contrasted by the feet of both sides) in steel, with two support towers about 100 meters high and weight of 1,800 tons each.
The project should have been completed by August 2025: according to what reported by the Qinghai Development and Reform Commission, 39 segments of the arch had been carried out since the beginning of the works and at the time of the accident the workers were positioning the suspension cables. Once concluded, the structure will be about 1.6 kilometers long and 55 meters high.
Incidents of this type, in reality, are quite common in China: in early August a similar episode took place in the north-western region of Xinjiang, where a suspended bridge gave way causing 5 victims and 24 injured. Also in this case, the causes were to be attributed to the breakdown of a cable, which caused the lateral collapse of the bridge.
