Fortunately, I have no plans to go to either Oakland or Quingdao.
Posted on 07/05/2011 7:42:15 AM PDT by Red Badger
Safety fears have been raised over the newly opened cross-sea bridge, the world's longest, that links Qingdao City in east China to the island of Huangdao.
There is concern that the tight schedule ahead of the official opening left important work undone or incomplete.
Several gaps were found in the crash barriers on the 42.5 kilometer Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, while bolts inserted to fasten the barriers were found to be loose or uncovered, China Central Television reported Monday.
CCTV said that workers were tightening bolts that could easily have been loosened by hand on the bridge, which has seen nearly 18,000 cars cross it every day since it was officially opened on June 30, on the eve of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.
A worker said they didn't have enough time to install all the safety barriers and to fix the bolts before the bridge's opening.
Workers had also to finish installing the bridge's lighting system, which was not in place yet, another man, believed to be in charge of work at the bridge, told CCTV.
"We have just started installing support facilities on the bridge and it will take two to three months to finish the work," he said.
When the Shandong provincial government announced the opening of the 14.8 billion yuan (US$2.3 billion) bridge, it said the structure, built to withstand earthquakes and typhoons, could take up to 50,000 cars at day, cutting the drive time between the two destinations from 40 to 20 minutes.
But many motorists expressed fears over safety given the high speed of traffic on the bridge and the potential dangers if crash barriers were not fully in place.
The man believed to be charge of the work said safety would not be affected by the loose bolts or the absence of barriers, but wouldn't say whether a too tight schedule was behind the bridge still being unfinished after its opening.
An official surnamed Cui with the bridge's investor, Shandong High-speed Group Co, said some barriers and bolts had been removed by workers to adjust wiring, which was normal practice after a bridge opened to traffic, Jiaodong.net reported Monday. Cui said the adjustments would be done by the end of this month with all bolts and barriers in place.
Workers toiled for four and a half years to build the bridge, which took the "world's longest" title from the 38.35 kilometer Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in the United States.
They just finished building the pieces of the Bay bridge for Oakland...good luck with that..
Pinging a few of you who questioned this bridge’s quality in my post announcing the bridge opening.
Fortunately, I have no plans to go to either Oakland or Quingdao.
How about Mandeville?
Not to worry, it comes with a one year warranty. That means a new bridge every 90 days.
They should have left those safety barriers out of the design if the barriers don't contribute to safety.
Would you buy a bridge from this man?...............
They can spent that extra 20 minutes thanking God that the bridge didn’t fall down during their commute.
A large number of the bolts were shearing in two...so many that the contractor had to disassemble the building and start over with better bolts.
The culprit: Although they were allegedly American made, the bolts were traced to China.
Any large engineering project in China scares me to death.
“some barriers and bolts had been removed by workers to adjust wiring, which was normal practice after a bridge opened to traffic”
I wonder how they ‘adjust’ wiring. Maybe they had to add wiring that they forgot?...not knowing alot about bridges, it doesn’t seem that ‘normal’ to me.
Just wait til they start selling cars here..............
I was hanging a TV, so I bought some fairly substantial wood screws down at the Home Depot (3”, #12). While installing the screws using a conventional hand screwdriver and my puny forearms, I snapped four screws off in a row.
I am not The Incredible Hulk by any means, but I could not get one of these screws fully into the wood, time after time.
I couldn’t figure it out until I took a closer look at the packaging. Made in China. ‘Nuff said...
BTW, if you go to Google Earth or Google Maps hoping to see a picture or map of this bridge, fuggedaboutit. I guess the Chinese are not ready to let Google share this information with the World, just yet.
“Just wait til they start selling cars here..............”
I have long predicted that one day we will be able to buy a Chinese car from Sam’s Club...they will be stacked in open sided wood boxes, with shrink wrap on them....with a bar code to scan.
Others have cautioned me that the Chinese will instead enter into the luxury car market. You may recall that the original Hondas in this country were considered ‘cheap’; and, they took a while to become popular. So, to counter the ‘cheap’ reputation, many expect the Chinese to enter the US car market with higher end vehicles....which will likely just be copies. I am surprised they haven’t done it yet.
There were rumors and rumblings a couple years ago that they would have ‘maxed out’ luxury cars for the American market for 10-15k..................
Will the cars run on coal?
Whenever anyone, ANYONE tries to tell you that China will surpass the USA as an economic superpower, just laugh! It’ll never happen until the people are the economy instead of the government.
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