Will the Collapse of the Nanfang’ao Bridge Only Cause Pain for One Day?

 Will the Collapse of the Nanfang’ao Bridge Only Cause Pain for One Day?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

October 3, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

After the collapse of the Nanfang’ao Cross Harbor Bridge, all circles strived for search and rescue; up to now, the disaster left five dead and one missing. A single incident of bridge collapse exposed the propensity of the entire country for pomposity and claims of achievements in new construction, with chaotic delineation of responsibility in security management, showing shortcomings in underwater search and rescue relative to bridge accidents. A number of bridge breaking incidents have occurred in Taiwan; could the collapse of the Nanfang’ao Bridge bring us a fundamental review and true soul-searching?

The rescue of people fallen from the surface of the bridge was of course a first priority. On the water surface and underwater search and rescue is even more important; however, the related units appeared clumsy and chaotic, while three fishing boats were crushed by the collapsing bridge. One search and rescue crew member bluntly stated that "training is inadequate for underwater rescue and equipment is insufficient". How could we conduct search and rescue? The related units on shore were equally messy. In the past, we prided ourselves on first rate technology of the single tied-arch bridge made of steel, rarely seen in the world. What is more lamentable is that for the search and rescue in the collapse of the Nanfang’ao Bridge, we didn’t have any thinking about ​​"borrowing from foreign experiences".

Because of topography, the density of bridges in Taiwan is quite high, and in the past, the chances of old bridges collapsing were also quite high; however, is a new bridge certainly safe? Not necessarily so, because above the bridge surface is the purview of the highway administration, while the water under the bridge is the responsibility of the waterways administration. The two units have bickered for decades, and to date, they have reached no consensus. Similarly, those bridges that have not been classified as perilous are not guaranteed to be free of incidents. The collapse of the Nanfang’ao Bridge underscored the chaotic "one country, three systems" in Taiwan’s bridge security management system. The 17 bridges under the Harbor Corporation and the over 1,000 bridges under the Taiwan Railroad Administration both have their own inspection and maintenance systems, and they are not included in the All Taiwan General Physical Inspection for Bridges under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, showing the loopholes of inspections and the black hole of perilous bridges.

With regard to the pomposity and claims of achievements on the part of political figures, they wantonly issue checks for construction, with special preferences for glorious engineering projects, but they are responsible only for the birth, not the raising, overlooking the subsequent security management as well as inspection and maintenance; all this was totally exposed in this accident of the bridge collapse. The collapse of the Nanfang’ao Bridge put many problems on the table, disputes would last awhile, and the government would make the simplest policy decision for reconstruction; would it bury again the problems that needed to be clarified, and with the inauguration of the new bridge, would the problems still persist, becoming a time bomb for the next incident?

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