The following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” – a list of failed or troubled projects from around the world.
Organization: Bihar State Road Construction Corporation – Bihar state India
Project type : Bridge construction
Project name : Aguwani-Sultanganj bridge
Date : Jun 2023
Cost : $208M USD
Synopsis :
Humans have been building bridges for millennia and there are of course inherent risks. Today those risks are well understood and modern engineering helps ensure bridges remain stable both during construction and once operational.
Despite that knowledge, mistakes do still get made and the occasional story of a bridge collapsing during construction does come up. However a major bridge collapsing twice during its construction is without modern precedent. Unfortunately the Aguwani-Sultanganj bridge under-construction over the Ganga river in India has suffered just that fate. The and is raising fundamental questions about the engineering, construction and safety practices being used during construction.
The 1.8 kilometer cable-stayed bridge suffered its first failure on 29th April 2022. The second came on 4 June 2023. Fortunately neither incident resulted in casualties. Causes of the problems haven’t yet been verified or published, but clearly there are deep seated issues that need to be identified and understood.
Contributing factors as reported in the press:
Currently reporting is conjecture and no formal reports have yet been published. Initial press reports point to concerns with both the bridge’s design and on-site quality management practices.
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