One person was injured after a recently rehabilitated road bridge in Neamt county, northeastern Romania, collapsed on Thursday, June 9. A truck and a van were crossing the bridge when it fell. Prosecutors are now investigating the case, especially as the bridge reopened for traffic only six months ago after rehabilitation works.

The bridge crossing the Siret river between the communes of Sagna and Lutca was inaugurated last fall after repair works that cost about RON 8 million. According to Digi24, Neamt County Council president Ionel Arsene assured at the inauguration that the bridge passed the strength tests and "will no longer be a problem for traffic participants." However, official statements look pretty different now.

The Ministry of Development said that the collapsed bridge could not be put into use yet because, formally, the reception report was not sent at the end of the works. Plus, according to the ministry, works were supposed to take 24 months, starting with July 23, 2020, with "the deadline for the completion being July 2022." The bridge was thus opened for traffic before the deadline.

"Development minister Cseke Attila ordered representatives of the State Construction Inspectorate to travel to the site urgently and to check the status of the works, and the results of these verifications will be made public," the ministry's statement reads.

Neamt County Council president Ionel Arsene also confirmed that the reception report was not received and said that new tests were supposed to be carried out to confirm the bridge's strength. According to him, the bridge was still under the builder's administration.

"The builder, the designer and those who provided the technical solutions are responsible for the condition of the bridge. An investigation will determine if the technical solution was good and if the company that carried out the works complied with the solutions in the technical project. Based on the findings of the investigation, those responsible for this incident will bear the consequences," Arsene said in a Facebook post.

Public road company CNAIR also reacted to the incident, saying that the collapsed bridge is under the administration of the Neamt County Council. "We also mention that this bridge was built, rehabilitated and consolidated under the authority of CJ Neamt and has never been in the administration of CNAIR," reads its press release.

Meanwhile, transport minister Sorin Grindeanu told Digi24 that mistakes were "obviously" made in the case of the collapsed bridge in Neamt.

"I understand that there's an ongoing investigation. That's very good because those who have made a mistake, because it is obvious that there is a mistake, have to pay. That the regulations were not complied with, that the expert or experts may have been wrong, that the project may have been wrong, that things may have happened that led to the collapse of this bridge - these things will be highlighted by this investigation. Neamt County Council is the one who paid for these works, and we will see what the conclusions are," Grindeanu said.

Contacted by Digi24, the owner of the company that carried out the rehabilitation works at the bridge from Lutca said that its team complied with the project and no intervention was made on the bridge’s resistance structure.

According to News.ro, the prosecutors opened two in rem criminal investigations in this case: for culpable bodily harm and for abuse of office. In this second case, investigators will determine how the bridge was rehabilitated.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos)