J-Bridge in Vietnam Collapses, Killing 54, Negligence Suspected

[Captain Japan]

[FLOATR][/FLOATR]
This is an interesting story. On September 26th, a bridge being constructed by Japanese construction gumis Taisei, Kajima, and Nippon Steel collapsed, killing 54 Vietnamese workers:

Vietnam's death toll from bridge collapse rises to 54
AP
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - The death toll in a bridge collapse in southern Vietnam rose to 54 after rescue workers pulled the last known victim from the rubble on Wednesday, three weeks after the accident occurred. "According to the contractors and subcontractors, everybody is now accounted for," said Nguyen Van Cong, a Ministry of Transport spokesman. "We hope that he was the last victim." The Sept. 26 accident left about 80 others injured, many of them in serious condition. All the victims were Vietnamese workers helping construct the Japanese-financed bridge, a 2.75-kilometer (1.7-mile) span that will link the southern province of Vinh Long and Can Tho, the biggest city in the Mekong Delta.

You are probably thinking "gee, this sounds like a big deal, why didn't I hear about it?" Well, the Mainichi (now a dead link), Kyodo, and the IHT gave it small coverage here and here. But lucky for the J-gumis, a Japanese photographer was gunned down in Burma the following day, which as you know was the only story coming from outside of Japan. However, a recent wrinkle in the bridge collapse is that investigators suspect negligence and slipshod work, similar to Aneha's handiwork as found in this thread. Here is a news item explaining the findings thus far:

The ad hoc committee held a meeting in Can Tho last Friday, with transport ministry officials, project owner My Thuan Project Management Unit, main contractor TKN (Taisei-Kajima-Nippon Steel), sub-contractor VSL, consultants, supervisors and local authorities taking part. Quan said the investigation was focusing on whether the Japanese contractor TKN used secondhand steel for scaffoldings as alleged.

While that doesn't include Aneha's hallmarks, this does:

The contractor reported they had reinforced the steel structure to meet the safety requirements when the supervisor checked its capacity at only 1.15. The absolute safety threshold is at least 1.25.

So now that the Burma issue has quieted, perhaps it is time someone at a Japanese news agency got around to checking into this?

[Takechanpoo]

[Captain Japan]

[Buraku]

Don't expect to hear much more on this bridge collapse they J-gov will bury the story like they've done in the past. Unlike the Pravdas and Pyongyang-KCTs the J-folk are very subtle with their media blackouts. Journalists have sued in the past but got nowhere, they don't like any negative publicity on the J-nation while the conservative nature of Japan's judicial system won't allow media reform. There have been suits against the press club system trying to tackle the government-sponsored wing of Japan Inc. Only a few months back did kisha clubs finally open their doors to foreign correspondents, however Confucianism or Press Totalitarianism rules in Tokyo and Japanese freelancers are still shut out. The kisha club system itself is rarely mentioned by the media like the 'Emperor' or 'Burakumin' the Kisha club itself is also a taboo subject

[dimwit]

I always thought that the purpose of ODA was to give poor people something they sensibly wouldn't build themselves given by people who would be criminally responsible if they tried to pull that shit in their own country. Sort of the way individuals donate there 'I'm with stupid' T-shirts to Goodwill.

[Takechanpoo]

This incident should be attributed to Vietnam subcontract company which made scaffoldings with secondhand steel in spite of J-company's repeated cautions.
J-company should owe only the responsibility of superviser.

[Behan]

From the picture, it doesn't look like it's only the scaffolding that gave way. Isn't that the bridge itself that has collapsed?

[Captain Japan]

This incident should be attributed to Vietnam subcontract company which made scaffoldings with secondhand steel in spite of J-company's repeated cautions.
J-company should owe only the responsibility of superviser.

Why not share the investigation's report with the rest of us? You obviously have seen it. Were you on site to hear those repeated cautions?

I don't think it is unusual to use secondhand steel for scaffolding. But nothing further has been reported on this so it is tough to know what happened.

[Captain Japan]

I always thought that the purpose of ODA was to give poor people something they sensibly wouldn't build themselves given by people who would be criminally responsible if they tried to pull that shit in their own country. Sort of the way individuals donate there 'I'm with stupid' T-shirts to Goodwill.

Here's what Wikipedia says:

Japan's Official Development Assistance (ODA) Program is a program established by Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to provide economic aid to developing countries. The ODA started on October 5, 1954, when Japan joined the Colombo Plan. Initially, the ODA program also oversaw the reparation issue to Asian countries that Japan occupied in World War II, like Burma and the Philippines.

That's the official story. Much more important, however, is the manipulation it allows in international issues. For example, the tiny Pacific island countries of Tuvalu and Kiribati and Japan's whaling:
[quote]Kiribati is the second Pacific Island Country to have joined the IWC in the last year. Their neighbour, Tuvalu, joined in June 2004, just in time to attend the last annual meeting of the IWC held in Italy last July. At that meeting, Tuvalu voted with the pro-whaling nations and against the conservation of the world’]
Under construction now in Kiribati is a road (funded by Japan). The project was funneled through Kiribati's fisheries division. Likewise, in Tuvalu next year a new wharf project will break ground, also funded by Japan.

[Captain Japan]

[Captain Japan]

Pylon Design, Scaffolds Eyed In Vietnam Bridge Collapse
10/02/2007
By Saibal Dasgupta
ENR

Investigators are trying to determine whether a Japanese contractor consortium or designers associated with the transport ministry of Vietnam were to blame for the fatal Sept. 26 collapse of the 100-meter span of the Can Tho cable-stayed bridge under construction. Taisei-Kajima-Nippon Steel (TKN), the joint venture contractor for the 2.75-km-long suspension bridge, may find it difficult to escape severe censure from the governments of both Vietnam and Japan if found culpable. Evidence is emerging that the company may have ignored warnings about weakness in the scaffolding of the structure.

More than 50 people died in the collapse of the approximately $343-million bridge meant to link the two banks of the Hau River, a tributary to the giant Mekong. The consortium of Taisei Corp., Kajima Corp., and Nippon Steel Corp., with consultant Nippon Koei-Chodai, began work in 2004 with completion slated for next year. Located in southern Vinh Long province, the bridge is financed by Japanese government loans to Vietnam.

Vietnam's Transport Minister Ho Nghia Dung, facing pressures to quit following the disaster, announced he was prepared to give up office if investigations showed his ministry was to blame for it. But he was confident that the investigations would turn up evidence to implicate the contractors, sources say.

Pham Quy Ngo, an official of the Ministry of Public Security, who has been appointed chief investigator into the accident, refused to discuss what evidence has surfaced so far. Both the Japanese government and the contractor have apologized to the families of the victims.

What might help save face for TKN is the suspicion that the designers may have failed to accurately calculate the load-bearing capacity of the pylons during the hours when the concrete was wet and did not set – which is when the accident took place, sources said.

However, the Vietnamese media published a memo written on June 27 by structural specialist Hiroshi Kudo, in which he urged the TKN consortium to "reinforce immediately" the scaffolding and other support for the bridge. Chu Ngoc Sung, an expert at the Hanoi Sciences and Techniques Association, says a section of bracing had broken and brought down everything with it.

Different voices have emerged from the Vietnamese government. Nguyen Ngoc Long, director of the official Work Quality Assessment and Management, has blamed the contractor for poor supervision. Nguyen Van Cong of the Ministry of Communications and Transportation has said heavy rain on an earlier night had softened the earth, causing the pylons to settle and tear down the bracing for the freshly poured spans.

[Mulboyne]

You are pretty much the only one bringing these stories together for us, Captain.