Investigation launched into collapse at Pyeongtaek bridge construction site
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Officials conduct an on-site inspection into the collapse of a bridge under construction in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. Four deck plates of the bridge and a bridge support collapsed a day earlier. / Yonhap
By Kim Bo-eun
A committee has launched an investigation into the collapse of a bridge under construction in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, the land ministry said Monday.
The 12-member committee led by Yonsei University professor Kim Sang-hyo will conduct on-site inspections as well as review documents over two months.
On Sunday at 3:20 p.m., four steel plates forming the deck of the bridge over Pyeongtaek Lake collapsed. The plates measuring 240 meters in length fell 20 meters to the lakebed below. There were no casualties.
One of the five bridge supports also collapsed, pointing to the possibility it caused the collapse of the deck plates.
However, the order of events has not been clarified yet.
Some pointed to the fact the construction had taken place amid heavy rain.
However, Kim was quoted as dismissing any relationship between the accident and the rain.
Meanwhile, attention is being drawn to the bridge’s construction techniques.
Construction had been underway using the incremental launching method (ILM), in which the deck is created on land and pushed onto the bridge posts with compression equipment.
The bridge would be the widest yet built in Korea with the technique.
The 1.35-kilometer-long bridge had been designed to be 27.7 meters wide with four lanes.
Although ILM is a safe technique widely used globally, this was the first attempt in Korea to use it for construction of such a wide bridge, and this may have increased safety risks, Kim said.
“The bridge was wide considering ILM was applied,” he was quoted as telling Yonhap News Agency. “We will have to conduct an on-site inspection to determine whether this had anything to do with the cause of the accident.”
Construction was 58.7 percent completed at the time of the accident. The Pyeongtaek city government began the 242.7 billion won construction project in June 2013.
Daelim is conducting the construction.
Authorities put a section of national road number 43 under control following the collapse, which created congestion for surrounding roads on Monday morning. The section leading to Seoul and cities in Gyeonggi Province from the cities of Sejong and Asan is usually busy.