US Expert: China’s Engineering Quality Issue Revealed by Meizhou Highway Collapse

In the early hours of May 1st, a sudden road collapse occurred on the Meidagao Highway in Meizhou, Guangdong province (Chaoyang section), resulting in 48 confirmed fatalities, which authorities have prematurely classified as a “disaster”. Online public opinion in China has surfaced criticisms of the early years’ “Infrastructure Leap Forward”. An American expert has pointed out that this incident is due to human-engineering quality issues rather than a so-called natural disaster, indicating a transition from quantitative to qualitative engineering problems that may lead to numerous incidents involving houses, roads, and bridges in China.

Despite authorities not officially disclosing the cause of the collapse, official reports have already categorized the Meidagao Highway collapse as a “disaster” as of yesterday (May 2). According to Xinhua News Agency on May 2, the collapse of the Chaoyang section of the Guangdong Meidagao Highway has led to 48 deaths.

The authorities are focusing their post-incident efforts on flood prevention and geological disaster management. The National Emergency Management Office and the State Council’s Office of Safety convened meetings and issued notifications yesterday, emphasizing the need to strengthen prevention measures against floods and geological disasters to mitigate similar accidents in the future.

Experts and relevant departments are currently investigating the specific causes of the collapse, with preliminary speculation pointing to factors such as geological structure, erosion from rainfall, and construction quality. An engineer specializing in structural and geotechnical engineering, analyzed that in the location of the slope, if the roadbed beneath the road is constructed using fill methods, protective measures like gravity retaining walls, soil nails, ground anchors, and anti-sliding piles are essential.

Recent continuous rainfall in the area may lead to soil erosion, creating water pressure in crevices that can trigger landslides. Contrary to reports asserting natural disasters as the cause, an American senior bridge structural design engineer, Chu Xueye, stated that the collapse is due to engineering quality issues.

Chu Xueye explained that for a collapse like the one on the Meizhou highway, it is a matter of engineering quality. After properly conducting slope protection with layers of compacted soil, even heavy rainfall should not wash it away suddenly. Thus, the main cause should be attributed to engineering quality rather than natural disasters unless seismic activity is involved.

Chu Xueye further mentioned that steeply piled slopes during sand filling can lead to slides and emphasized that quality issues arise from cutting corners in construction. He criticized the lack of construction records indicating improper practices of substandard projects associated with embezzlement of funds leading to compromised engineering quality.

Since conventionally, enterprises involved in such accidents are often held accountable, recent reports indicated that the Meidagao Highway segment was operationalized by Guangdong Chao Highway Corporation, a state-owned enterprise under the Guangdong Provincial Communications Group. The construction of the Meidagao Highway was carried out by the Guangdong Provincial Road and Bridge Construction Development Co., Ltd., formed in 1994 and subsequently managed by the Guangdong Provincial Communications Group in 2000.

The Meizhou Highway accident occurred within a decade of its construction, and the operational authority, Chao Highway, has been party to multiple contract disputes. Mainland Chinese netizens have voiced suspicions of corrupt practices in related projects, linking them to the prevalent issue of subcontracting resulting in compromised quality.

Chu Xueye stressed the association of corrupt practices with earthwork projects being lucrative due to extensive investments in highway construction. He expressed difficulty in holding authorities accountable due to the involvement of high-ranking officials, leading to attributions of natural disasters to evade responsibility. He emphasized that construction engineers from related enterprises may serve as scapegoats despite no personal gain from wrongful practices.

Following the Meidagao Highway incident, mainland Chinese public opinion has raised doubts about the “Infrastructure Leap Forward” pursued in recent years, connecting the accident to the side effects of rapid infrastructure development. Concerns have been raised questioning the sustainability of high-speed roads considering their relatively short lifespan despite considerable investments.

Chu Xueye attributed the rash development to the Communist Party’s pursuit of economic growth to legitimize its rule, resulting in extensive spending on infrastructure projects intertwined with corruption, ultimately compromising quality. He expressed concerns about the prevalence of such incidents due to gradual changes in the quantity to quality equation, leading to a surge in preventable accidents due to shoddy construction.

As a civil engineering graduate and Ph.D. holder in structural engineering from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, Chu Xueye, originally from Gushi County, Henan Province, forewarned of a future plagued with incidents caused by substandard engineering practices across China. He highlighted that widespread incidents involving houses, roads, and bridges are imminent, accentuating the need for thorough scrutiny of past projects to prevent further disasters under Xi Jinping’s governance.

Chu Xueye critiqued the continuous pursuit of rapid development without fundamental structural stability considerations, suggesting that misinformation and censorship hinder public awareness of the accumulating risks associated with poorly executed infrastructure projects. He concluded warning about the impending rise in accidents concerning housing, roads, and bridges due to the extensive development initiatives undertaken in the past decades.