A highway in Yunnan that has been in operation for only three years recently suffered cracking and collapse after heavy rainfall, leaving the road surface in pieces. While the authorities claim it was due to a “natural disaster,” netizens have raised suspicions of substandard construction practices.
In a notice issued on November 5 by the government of Jingdong Yi Autonomous County in Pu’er City, Yunnan Province, it was stated that the recent heavy rainfall has caused multiple slope collapses and roadbed settling on the Nanjing Expressway (from Dali Nanjian to Jingdong in Pu’er), attributing these incidents to “natural disasters” that have not resulted in casualties or vehicle losses, and efforts are underway to restore and repair the road. Starting from 8 a.m. on the 5th, traffic controls were implemented for all social vehicles.
The incident occurred on the night of November 3. Videos show that the highway has fractured into countless pieces and collapsed sideways.
On November 6, staff from the Pu’er City Transportation Bureau told Chinese media that the handling of this incident is still under investigation, with no large-scale repair work currently being conducted and the time for road reopening yet to be determined.
Regarding the official statement attributing the incident to a natural disaster while still under investigation, netizens have questioned, “This is clearly a shoddy project, and they’re making excuses!” “Messing with the foundation, lack of protection for the soil slopes, isn’t this result inevitable?” “Amazing, my country!” “It’s not an earthquake, just some rain can destroy it. If a bridge was built over a body of water, wouldn’t it fall in?”
Some individuals claiming to be professionals have posted saying, “It seems that the basic common sense of water flowing to low-lying areas was overlooked during road construction. The geological composition of most of the mountains in Yunnan is not clay but non-water-retaining loess soil. Heavy rainfall can saturate the soil at the lower parts of the mountain, causing the asphalt surface to crack. When constructing roads on such geological slopes, steel-reinforced concrete pavement should be used, with provisions for pavement expansion joints and drainage pipes under the roadbed.”
Some netizens also allege that the authorities may have concealed data on casualties and vehicle damages.
According to official information, the Nanjing Expressway (S41) in Yunnan Province connects Nangjian County of Dali Prefecture with Xiaoxincun of Jingdong County in Pu’er City, serving as a provincial-level highway, with a total length of 94.90 kilometers built to four lanes in both directions, with a design speed of 80 kilometers per hour, a roadbed width of 25.5 meters, an estimated approved investment of 13.882 billion Chinese yuan, and a mainline bridge-tunnel ratio of 50.33%. The project commenced in July 2016, opened for construction in segments, and was fully operational in August 2022.
Public records show that Yunnan Nanjing Expressway Co., Ltd. is specifically responsible for the construction and operation of the Nanjing Expressway, with Yunnan Jiutou Group Investment Co., Ltd. as its largest shareholder with a 66.5% stake, and other shareholders include Pu’er Transportation Construction Group Co., Ltd., Dali Jingnan Expressway Co., Ltd., among others.
China has been heavily investing in infrastructure in recent years, with large-scale construction of highways, yet incidents of road collapses have been reported from time to time.
On May 1, 2024, in the early hours of the morning, a road collapse occurred on the Meilong Expressway section of the Meilong Expressway in Dapu County, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province. The official report from the Communist Party of China stated that 23 vehicles were trapped, resulting in 52 deaths and 30 injuries.
After the accident, many people pointed out construction issues and insufficient post-accident maintenance on the highway. However, the authorities only classified the incident as a “disaster,” causing dissatisfaction among netizens.
Zhuxue Ye, a senior bridge structural design engineer from the United States, stated to Epoch Times after researching information related to the Meilong Expressway collapse incident that this was a human-made engineering quality issue rather than a so-called natural disaster, possibly involving cutting corners and corruption related to layered subcontracting.