A pedestrian bridge under construction collapsed Sept. 21 near Delhi, India's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium�the site of the Commonwealth Games scheduled to begin Oct 2. Twenty-seven workers with Chandigarh-based PNR Infra. were injured, some after jumping off the collapsing span.
The $2.3-million steel arch-supported footbridge was 90 meters long and about 1 m wide. The bridge was being constructed by the north Indian city.
Government agency Rakesh Mishra, Public Works Dept. engineer-in-chief, says it appears the ramp seat was not capable of carrying the slab weight.
“The structure is intact. Casting was in progress and concrete was being laid and a pin of a suspender may have been loose and it gave in...it’s not a big thing; we can fix it,” says Mishra. He acknowledges it was a “setback, as the work has just started.”
Delhi government’s PWD Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan told a local newspaper: “A rod was being rested on a grid but a clip slipped...resulting in the bridge collapsing.”
The bridge is designed to connect the parking lot of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium complex where the opening and closing functions of Commonwealth Games are to be held.
The collapse is the latest setback to the planning for the Games. London-based Peter Braithwaite, Director with CH2M Hill, India’s Olympic delivery partner for sustainability, earlier told ENR that the program management of the Commonwealth Games could have been improved. “This is typical of developing countries. It is only through experience that one can learn how to run a program,” he said. “Architects and engineers need to understand the requirement, take the vision and make it robust and workable.”
