The Chirajara, the fall of a giant who made engineering tremble

Five months after the fall of part of Chirajara Bridge on the road Bogotá-Villavicencio, today at 14:00. its implosion will take place. The lessons are basically two: adjust the processes of the interventorías and not neglect the conceptions. In other words: a strong pull of the ears for engineering.

Chirajara is one of 42 bridges that are built on this road that has a total investment of $ 2.3 billion and that was received in 2017 for the collection of tolls, according to the Agency National Infrastructure, ANI, about $ 217 billion. Only this bridge that will be demolished today had an investment of 72 billion dollars.

To the tragedy that left its collapse – 10 people died – we add the delay that will be the delivery of this road corridor that seeks to connect Bogota to the plains and which, according to the contract, must be completed in August 2023. Despite its importance, neither ANI nor Coviandes have yet revealed the start of work on the new bridge or their characteristics. It should be noted that without a new structure, at least 4 kilometers of tunnels that are not yet in service can enter service because the only way out is the bridge.

The Minister of Transport, Germán Cardona He said that this kind of tragedy should not happen again. "This should allow us to review and strengthen the monitoring efforts in each of the works.It is an alert that requires all of us a new commitment to regain confidence in the future of this revolution." infrastructure, "he said.

But then, that learned Colombian engineering after the collapse of Chirajara? Argelino Durán, President of the Colombian Society of Engineers, points out that there was a conceptual flaw in the design and that it should have been detected in the construction phases. He argued that the drawings must be submitted for examination.

According to Mr. Durán, engineering should be aware that, regardless of its professionalism, it may make mistakes and "that is why, in work of some importance, more late, which must be technical and complete. "

He recalled that following what happened with the space building, the safe housing law emerged, in which further revisions were made in the construction of buildings." The engineers make mistakes and that's why the best thing to do is to have another engineer with technical experience to support the design you have done, "he said, adding that he saw his profession as risky and unintentional.

"Therefore, I ask all engineers to lower our arrogance a bit. We must allow, without disturbing ourselves, that other pairs can revisit the models we manufacture, "he said.

According to the Society of Engineers, other major bridges built in the country, such as Pumarejo and Hisgaura, presented problems of quality

Martín Alonso Pérez, President of the Society of Engineers of Antioquena, indicated that the education left to them is that They must have more effective control systems, with more rigor in the equipment of the work and perform "rigorous follow-ups." The control processes in the development of a project must be saved. "