At 9.6 miles long, it is one of the longest bridges in China. Or at least, it was, until a 330-foot long section collapsed earlier today, dropping 100 feet to the ground, killing three and injuring five others, according to state-run CCTV.<br /><br />The Yangmingtan Bridge in the city of Harbin was opened only 9 months ago. Chinese officials say it wasn’t the bridge’s fault, but that the trucks on the bridge were too heavy, reports the New York Times.<br /><br />Netizens are mocking the official response, with one going by the name of, “just another round” (還是一回) joking, “with heavy snowfall in winter I won’t dare to travel on bridges. I’m scared they’ll collapse.”<br /><br />This is just the latest in an ongoing national debate over the quality of rapid construction projects that were meant as a show of national prestige, but ended in disaster. On July 23rd of last year, another product of the rapid construction fever, China’s network of high-speed rails, came under fire when two trains collided in Wenzhou, killing 40 and injuring almost 200. Many now refer to these construction projects as “tofu construction.”
