Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira Bridge collapse in Brazil

I haven't had an Infrastructure post since July. I thought it was time for another.

This bridge in question collapsed on 22 December 2024. The start of the collapse was caught on video, though slightly grainy video.

The Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira Bridge crossed the Tocantins River. It connected the cities of Estreito, Maranhão, and Aguiarnópolis, Tocantins, Brazil. The Tocantins River is one of the largest rivers in South America. The clear span at the center of the bridge, the section that collapsed, was 140 meters or 460 feet. It was an important route for cargo transportation in Brazil. 140 meters was record-setting long, at least for a post-stressed, poured in place, concrete bridge.

The bridge opened in January 1961, and was named for the outgoing president of Brazil. Like many bridges built in the 1960s, the load it ended up carrying was significantly higher than that envisioned by the engineering team.

Maintenance was also an issue, and in May of 2024, the Brazilian National Department of Transport Infrastructure started a bidding process to have contractors correct some issues with the bridge.

Ten vehicles fell into the river, on 22 December 2024, killing 13 people. A vehicle carrying 76 metric tons of sulfuric acid and 22,000 to 25,000 liters of pesticide also fell into the river, causing concerns about contamination, but the truck's cargo was found and recovered intact by divers after the disaster.

This is the Plainly Difficult video Moment Of Disaster Caught On Camera

Humans do a pretty good job with Infrastructure when it is new, and we often rebuild after disasters even better than new. The problem is that every piece of infrastructure has an expiration date, and no one wants to save for replacement. Maintenance of existing bridges, dams, whatever, also doesn't offer any politician a chance to put his name on something. That is, unfortunately, why we tend to clean up after disasters.

This story put me in mind of the The Morandi Bridge Collapse, in Genoa Italy. That was also a bridge, designed and built in the 1960s, that was carrying more load than it did when it was new, and it was known to need repair.