GUANGZHOU, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- A fatal expressway collapse in south China's Guangdong Province in 2024 was caused by prolonged, continuous rainfall combined with multiple other factors, according to a report released on Wednesday.
The adverse factors that exacerbated the damage occurred in the early morning of the collapse and included rain, poor visibility and a higher-than-usual traffic volume. There were also issues in the construction, operation and maintenance of the road, which had a negative impact on the embankment's disaster resilience, per the investigation and assessment report.
The collapse occurred on the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway in Meizhou, Guangdong, on May 1, 2024. One side of the expressway caved in, causing 23 vehicles to roll down a slope, killing 52 people and injuring 30.
Following the collapse, Guangdong promptly established a disaster investigation and assessment team headed by the provincial governor.
The investigation has found that Guangdong had experienced multiple incidences of heavy rainfall, with the average rainfall of last year across the province breaking historical records in April.
At a hydrological station about 700 meters from the collapse site, the cumulative rainfall was 740.5 millimeters that month, making it the wettest month on record since January 2021. At another station about 15.9 kilometers from the disaster site, the monthly rainfall reached 628.2 millimeters -- 3.75 times the site's historical average for April and the wettest April since the station opened in 1957.
The report notes that the shear strength of the embankment was reduced as it was saturated by water due to rainfall, and affected by rising groundwater levels and pressure. Parts of the embankment and toe walls slid and deformed, and consequently resulted in the collapse.
Problems in the expressway's engineering survey, design, construction, operation, maintenance and other aspects were investigated. Relevant details of the performance of duties among construction entities and officials have been handed to discipline inspection and supervision authorities. Relevant authorities will investigate and deal with any legal or regulatory violations of entities and personnel according to the law.
The investigation and assessment team has listed issues in five major areas: insufficient attention paid to the high embankment and the dangers of prolonged, continuous rainfall; deficient awareness of highway groundwater-prevention methods, and lacking intelligent monitoring and warning systems; inadequate construction management; insufficient emphasis on maintenance and daily hazard inspection; and ineffective regulations.
The team has proposed five preventive and corrective measures: enhance awareness and understanding of extreme weather response requirements; improve the basic safety levels of embankments; strengthen the whole-life-cycle management of expressways; refine the risk-monitoring and risk-control capabilities of highways; increase public risk-prevention awareness, and public self-rescue and mutual-rescue capabilities. ■