New Bridge in S.West China Collapses following up

New Bridge in S.West China Collapses following up

London-UK, November 13, 2025

A significant infrastructure shock has hit South-West China after a section of a recently opened new bridge completely collapses into a mountainside and the river below.

The dramatic incident, which occurred on the 758-meter Hongqi Bridge in the mountainous Sichuan province, saw large concrete slabs and steel girders buckle and fall within seconds.

The collapse, witnessed in widely circulated videos on Chinese social media, was attributed by local authorities in the city of Barkam, China, to a catastrophic combination of a landslide and instability on the surrounding slopes.

Fortunately, there were no casualties as police had preemptively closed the structure after engineers identified structural cracks, but the failure of such a new bridge immediately raises profound and uncomfortable questions about the speed, safety, and quality control standards governing China’s massive state-backed infrastructure boom.

Headline Points: The Collapse and Safety Questions

Location and Structure:

The Hongqi Bridge is located in Barkam, Sichuan province, a mountainous region in South-West China. It is a key section of a national highway designed to link the inland province with Tibet.

Cause of Collapse:

Authorities confirmed the collapse was directly triggered by landslides striking the approach ramp and roadbed, which had been weakened by underlying geological instability on the mountainside overlooking the structure.

Preemptive Closure:

Crucially, there were no casualties because local police had closed the bridge to all traffic late on Monday after engineering teams spotted cracks on nearby roads and detected ground movement.

Newly Built:

The bridge, which was a celebrated engineering milestone in the region, was only completed and opened to the public in April of this year, just seven months before the collapse.

Contractor Scrutiny:

The contractor, the state-owned Sichuan Road & Bridge Group, immediately removed all promotional materials and videos of the bridge’s opening from its website following the incident.

National Safety Concerns:

The collapse is the latest in a series of high-profile infrastructure failures in China, fueling a national debate over whether the breakneck pace of construction in inland regions is compromising safety standards and structural integrity.

The Dramatic Failure of a New Engineering Milestone

The Hongqi Bridge was hailed by local government officials as a vital link, intended to improve connectivity and economic growth between Sichuan and the Tibetan Plateau.

The project, which cost approximately $1.3 million and took 19 months to complete, represented the huge investment China has placed on internal infrastructure to spur regional development.

However, the structure’s life was tragically short. Local authorities confirmed that cracks had first appeared on the mountain slopes and adjacent roads late on Monday.

Recognizing the danger, police and local officials acted swiftly to cordon off the entire area, a decision that ultimately saved lives.

By Tuesday afternoon, the geological instability worsened rapidly, leading to the mountainside giving way and triggering a massive landslide that directly impacted the bridge’s roadbed and approach ramp.

Footage of the event captured the shocking scene:

a large section of the bridge is seen breaking away from its supports before falling into the river and valley below, resulting in huge plumes of dust and debris.

The failure of the new bridge has immediately triggered an official investigation into the design, construction, and materials used, as well as the geological risk assessments conducted prior to and during the construction phase.

The Shadow of Safety and Corruption

The incident in South-West China reignites a recurrent and sensitive public debate in China: the trade-off between rapid economic development and construction safety. China’s central government has consistently relied on huge state-backed infrastructure projects to sustain economic growth, particularly in less-developed inland provinces like Sichuan. While this strategy has produced unparalleled high-speed rail networks and colossal dams, it has also been plagued by safety concerns and allegations of corruption.

This is not an isolated event. Only two months prior, in August, at least 12 workers were killed when a bridge under construction in the northwestern province of Qinghai collapsed. The constant pressure on construction contractors to meet impossible deadlines and minimize costs often leads to the use of substandard materials, poor quality control, and a disregard for environmental and geological stability warnings.

The rapid and catastrophic nature of the new bridge failure, a structure that should have had a lifespan of decades, suggests severe underlying issues—either a failure to correctly assess the stability of the mountainside on which the approach ramp was built or compromised structural integrity that could not withstand the force of the inevitable landslide. The immediate removal of promotional materials by the contractor, Sichuan Road & Bridge Group, further suggests an admission of culpability or a desire to distance themselves from the burgeoning public relations crisis. The Chinese government now faces intense pressure to not only repair the key highway link but, more importantly, to demonstrate that a rigorous and transparent investigation will result in genuine accountability for the engineering and regulatory failures that led to this catastrophic infrastructure shock.