High standards in rebuilding Hunan bridge: contractor

CHANGSHA - Stringent standards are being implemented in rebuilding a bridge in Central China's Hunan province whose collapse five years ago killed 64 people and injured 22, according to sources.

On Aug 13, 2007, a bridge over the Tuojiang River in Fenghuang county, fell apart due to its shoddy construction. With its alarming death toll and causing an economic loss of nearly 40 million yuan ($6.35 million), it was the country's worst bridge collapse tragedy.

Sources with contractor the China Railway Construction Corporation Limited have told Xinhua that the reconstruction has progressed smoothly since the project began in November 2011, with work on the arch structure now in full swing.

Standardized rules are being applied in the entire process from steel bar processing to cement mixing, according to the company.

Chen Liming, a project manager, said the company vowed to make the new bridge into a new icon as lasting as Fenghuang county, the nearby famous ancient-style scenic town which the bridge will link with Daxing Airport in Tongren city, in neighboring Guizhou province.

The Chinese government has repeatedly told contractors to obey rules when building key infrastructure and industrial projects, but sad news stories have to be written all too frequently about their failures.

On Aug 24, a one-year-old bridge collapsed in northeastern Heilongjiang province, causing four trucks to plunge about 30 meters to the ground, killing three people and injuring five others.

On July 7, an under-construction overpass collapsed in the city of Handan in North China's Hebei province, burying four workers in sandbags that fell from the unfinished structure.