Recently, there has been a video circulating online claiming that the stone guardrails on both sides of the South Bridge in Wudan Town, Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, have been blown down by strong winds, sparking heated discussions.
On July 22, a netizen posted a video stating that after a strong wind in the afternoon, the stone guardrails on both sides of the bridge in Wudan, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, were blown down. The netizen questioned the quality of the guardrails on the bridge.
The video showed that the fallen stone guardrails were fractured and there were no obvious steel reinforcements visible. There were also no traces of steel reinforcements at the connection points between the stone guardrail columns and the ground. The video triggered a large number of netizens to discuss the quality of the bridge.
Some netizens believed it was due to extreme weather conditions, but most netizens thought it was the flawed structure of the guardrails that caused them to be damaged by the wind. Netizens pointed out: “You can’t see any steel reinforcement inside, and the surrounding area wasn’t damaged, only the guardrail was broken.” “Why are there no steel reinforcements in the columns?”
In response to this, staff from the Traffic Department of Wengniute Banner stated, “There was a level 12 hurricane at the time, and the guardrail is a ‘scenic’ guardrail with solid stones without ventilation holes, so it was blown down.” On July 24, staff from the Traffic and Transportation Department of Wengniute Banner emphasized to Jimo News that the guardrail collapsed due to extreme windy weather, not due to quality issues.
The response from the Traffic Department of Wengniute Banner drew mockery from netizens: “The wind was indeed strong, it blew me all the way to Guangdong.” “It must have been a tornado.” “It scared me, I quickly opened a few ventilation holes in my house.” “If that’s the case, all facilities in coastal cities should be blown away by typhoons.” “It’s been over ten years, the glue used back then must have deteriorated.” “Fortunately, it was the wind, if a person fell, it would have been too costly.”
Some said: “The wind silently endures everything.”
The incident has raised concerns regarding the structural integrity of the infrastructure and prompted discussions on the importance of proper construction standards to ensure the safety of public infrastructure in the face of extreme weather conditions.