'Walang mali sa design' - Engr. of collapsed Sta. Maria-Cabagan bridge

Isabela, Philippines – Amid ongoing probe on the collapsed Sta. Maria – Cabagan bridge in Isabela, the engineer behind the billion-worth structure spoke out, refuting claim the bridge gave in due to faulty blueprint.  

Last Thursday, March 6, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself visited the bridge where he told the media there is a flaw in the design, saying it is the only suspension bridge he saw which was not supported by cables.

“It is a design flaw. Mali yung design,” the president said.

Speaking to reporters recently, Engineer Alberto Cañete who authored the 1997 and 2015 Bridge Code of the Philippines and the one who designed the 990-meter structure defended his work, asserting the bridge complied with the Bridge Code.

The Engineer explained that the dump truck described to have weighed 102 tons managed to cross 9 of the 12 arches before the bridge collapsed. If the design was flawed, the structure would have fallen right at the first arch when the vehicle crossed it and not on the 10th.

He further said that the P1.2 billion bridge was initially designed under the 1997 code, but it began construction in 2014 and new standards were introduced in 2015, prompting them to increase requirements for the bridge. Thus, the retrofitting of the first eight arches of the bridge.

The engineer likewise clarified that the Sta. Maria – Cabagan bridge is not a ‘suspension bridge’ as claimed by the president in his earlier remark, rather it was a tied arch bridge where the arches are the ones carrying the entire structure.

While he refused to blame anyone, Cañete who reportedly claimed that his role was only limited to designing the bridge and not the construction, called for a forensic engineering investigation to establish what led the structure to collapse.

Meantime, it was earlier mentioned that authorities are considering filing charges on the truck company as they also look in the overloading angle of the incident since the bridge could only accommodate light vehicles.