A huge girder collapsed from a bridge under construction in Querétaro city on Sunday, just hours after it was fixed in place.
No injuries have been reported after the support beam crashed onto the tarmac near the city center on Bernardo Quintana Boulevard, near the intersection with Sombrerete Avenue.
Traffic on Bernardo Quintana Boulevard was temporarily rerouted in one direction.
The curved metallic structure is some 50 meters long and formed part of a vehicular bridge which is about 10 meters above the boulevard’s surface. The infrastructure project cost more than 118 million pesos (US $5.9 million).
The state government said that no people or vehicles were in the vicinity of the bridge at the time of the collapse, meaning that no injuries were recorded. It later said in a statement that an investigation had been opened to determine who was responsible.
The Querétaro Ministry of Urban Development and Public Works said the girder was placed by workers from the construction company Soluntitec. The ministry added in a statement that Soluntitec “was contracted by the state government based on the law and procedures in force.”
The gaffe is particularly embarrassing for state Governor Mauricio Kuri González, who had toured the construction and celebrated its progress on Saturday. “We are very happy because we are putting the last girder here on the Sombrerete bridge … we are very grateful to the people who have shown a lot of patience and a lot of tolerance … this is the way to take Querétaro to the next level,” Kuri said on Saturday, after touring the construction.
Kuri said at the time that the construction was at 60% completion, far ahead of the 37% completion scheduled. He added on Saturday that the bridge was set to be finished in early October, earlier than January 2023 as had been originally planned.
With reports from El Capitalino and La Razón
