Archives for posts with tag: subway

What exactly caused the Hangzhou subway collapse

November 20, 08 //
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Well, no one knows, just yet. There are no official answers, but from what i’ve been able to cull from the internet, there were several factors. Some people have said that the tubes used to prop the tunnel up were of inferior quality. Others have said the collapsed site was near a heavily trafficked road, upon which there had appeared cracks and little pits weeks earlier. There was also, mentioned in some other article whose links i’ve lost now, the issue of how the route was changed, and how the project was hastened by a whole year, which perhaps lead people cutting corners or making less than sound decisions. If, as mentioned earlier on this blog and all over the internet, suspicious problems were discovered weeks before the collapse, then there is some huge problem with the way that problems are treated, reported, and dealt with. “Bureaucracy with Chinese characteristics was responsible for the deaths of these people” is how one commenter put it.

Now, every aspect of this subway is going to be examined. I have read some brief snippets on the web about bidding process for this contract…in any case, i hope that even if there is no courageous muckracking by any one individual or outlet that at least, collectively, people can arrive at something approximating the truth.

Hangzhou subway tunnel collapse: problems discovered a month ago

November 17, 08 //
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This CNN article has the number of dead pegged at 4 but it seems that now the official number of dead has risen to five. What makes the whole thing much much worse is the fact that, according to one SIna report that we read, that problems were discovered a month ago. Check out what is said in this paragraph:

金德水责问地铁施工相关负责人：“是否在事故之前就曾发现过事故隐患？”该负责人表示确实存在隐患。

　　赵铁锤随即痛批，为什么不事先采取措施解除隐患？相关负责人表示，已经和上级部门汇报过，需要等待上级批示。

　　三位领导均表示，不可能有这种事，出现这么重大的安全隐患，施工单位应该及时采取措施补救，根本不需要等待审批。

The leaders–provincial and city officials–asked some of the construction company reps if there really had been problems discovered earlier–and the reps said yes, and then the officials asked why immediate measures were not taken to solve the problem, and the reps said that they needed to report the problem to their superiors and wait for approval. And the officials said that a problem of this seriousness did not have to go through that whole bureaucratic rigamarole.

If you’ve lived in China, and know Chinese people—this kind of tragedy is nothing new. The numbness follows and subdues the anger much more quickly now, because you almost expect this kind of thing to happen on a regular basis in China. They are notoriously bad on worker safety. They are known around the world for cutting corners at the cost of human life.

I’ve had enough of people dying needlessly of late, what with Tom passing away and then this shit. Every fucking day. Every fucking day. This shit and this shit world. How do you manage to go on, without your consciousness bludgeoned by fear? You know full well that people around are NOT trying their best to keep you alive and healthy. They aren’t wishing for your death, but this kind of laxity really just drives you insane because it implies that for someone, somewhere, decisions are being made that place something else above human life in value. And guess what, there are very few things in life that have greater value than a human being’s life, and the meaning in each person’s existence.

China now becoming an infrastructure builder around the world?

August 9, 08 //
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I was just reading this article from Ha’aretz about some of China’s major infrastructure projects in Israel, including the Carmel Tunnel. Interesting stuff, for example, a partial list of some of China’s more recent and more prominent projects:

“China’s presence in Israel as an infrastructure builder is new,” says Samuels. “In the past, China used to export mainly cheap labor to Israel. But in recent years Chinese companies have been realizing huge projects, including power stations, airports and railroads. A Chinese company built the subway in Tehran in the past decade. The CCECC is now building a 1,300-kilometer railroad along the entire length of Nigeria. Previously it won an $8-billion infrastructure tender in Algeria.”

Next time I take the tube in Tehran…I am going to be worried, very worried. No, but in all honesty, all this comes at a bit of a surprise because I had mostly heard of Chinese projects in Africa and the Middle East—but mostly relating to oil. Of course, the projects in West Africa and Sudan (in relation to Darfur crisis) have received the most press. But would have thought, huh—the subway in Tehran.