Case Study 3 (Print) Investigation of the Chirajara Bridge Collapse

On January 15, 2018, at 11:49, the west pylon (B) of the cable-stayed Chirajara Bridge collapsed during the construction of the bridge girder. The crossing is located approximately 20 km NW of Villavicencio, Colombia. The collapse led to the complete destruction of Pylon B, together with the erected span of the bridge girder. Authorities reported nine fatalities resulting from the collapse. Shortly after, the project insurer QBE Segures (Colombia) commissioned an independent investigation into the collapse of the bridge, through loss adjusters ONC Adjusters (Bogotá, Colombia). An international team of bridge engineering experts was assembled to undertake the investigation, with Professor Christos T. Georgakis of Brincker & Georgakis, Denmark as chair of the team. The other members of the team were Sven Eilif Svensson of ES-Consult; Klaus H. Ostenfeld of KHO-Consult in Denmark, Siegfried Hopf of Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner in Germany and Professor Yozo Fujino of Yokohama National University in Japan.All findings of the Brief Interim Report of May 30, 2018, and the extended Interim Report of August 4, 2018, are presented and expanded upon in this book. The final findings of the team on the detailed investigation into the failure mechanism of Pylon B are reported in addition to a general assessment of the bridge design, the materials used for construction, and geotechnical aspects, as well as the observations made during site visits and interviews with all relevant parties. Authored by Dr. Christos T. Georgakis; Dr. Yozo Fujino; Siegfried Hopf; Klaus H. Ostenfeld; and Dr. S. Eilif Svensson; the Chief Reviewer for this Bulletin was the Vice Chair of IABSE Bulletin Board, Dr. Fabrizio Palimisano and Reviewers were members of the IABSE Task Group 5.1 Forensic Engineering, John Duntemann, and Laurent Rus.