User:Pcr910303/Seongsu Bridge collapse

The Seongsu Bridge collapsed on October 21th 1994. Because of the accident 32 people died and 17 people got injured. 8 people among the 32 dead people were Muhak Girl’s High School students which made the accident more tragic.

Defective construction and the government’s ignoration were the main reason of the collapse. The collapse of Seongsu Bridge is a very good example of Korean’s safety frigidity. People began to worry about collapse of the constructure starting from this incident. As a result, the Korean government started to check the safety of the buildings located in Seoul.

The collapse was greatly related to social problems. The government’s corruption and problems of construction company were revealed recently, but there weren't any appropriate reaction for it. The collapse of Seongsu Bridge decreased the South Korea's stature. The biggest problem is that the accident could be predicted and the people might have stopped the accident. However, the Korean Civilian Government ignored the opinion because they mostly cared about the fast growth of the economy. Also, they didn’t want to believe that the bridge might fell because it would show their failure. As a result, it became the one of the biggest failures of Korean Civilian Government. Even though the accident was occurred at 1994 the parties to an accident are still sufuring because of the aftereffect of the accident.

Seongsu Bridge is 11th built Han river bridge which connects Seongsu-dong and Apgujeong-dong. The bridges that were built before the Seongsu bridge the beauty of the bridge wasn’t considered. But Seongsu bridge is a truss bridge and used blue color which was very shocking at that time. After the collapse, Seongsu bridge was built all again and was finished at July 3, 1997.

Situation
On Friday, October 21, 1994, at around 2:30 a.m. after 0:20 a.m., drivers saw run a 1.3-meter-wide, 2-meter-tall iron plate wrapped in the junction of the Sungsu Bridge. It was a first aid measure for the Seoul Metropolitan Government to cover the cracks in the joints of the top plate. But the cracks got bigger over time.

At around 6 a.m. on the same day, the driver of a vehicle passing through Seongsu Bridge was so shocked when he passed a joint that he reported it directly to the city government. Nevertheless, they did not take emergency measures to control the entry of the bridge, and a tragic accident happened.

On October 21, 1994, at 7:48 a.m., the upper truss 48 meters was collapsed between the 10th and 11th pier of Sungsu Bridge.

A passenger van and two passenger cars that were running in the accident crashed into the Han River along with the suspended truss, and two cars that were parked at the point of collapse were drowned too. Later, the No. 16 city bus driver, whose bus was heading for Bundong from Seoul Grand Park, found the collapsing point and steped on the brakes. But it falled to the river.

As the accident happened at the time of morning rush hour, ordinary people such as office workers and teachers became victims. In particular, one girl from Muhak Girl's Middle School and eight girls from Muhak Girl's High School were dead in the city bus. As a result, Muhak Middle School and Muhak High School are still offering a reminder date for their students as of 2018.

In addition, Lee Seung-yeong, a student at Seoul National University of Education, was also dead in an accident when he got on a bus in the city while going to a student's practice.

Technical Reasons
The Seongsu Bridge was the first bridge to pay attention to the appearance as well as the function of the bridge. The bridges built before the Seongsu bridge were focused on reducing the construction cost rather than the public law or structural features. On the other hand, the Seongsu Bridge considered appearance when constructing. A truss bridge was constructed by placing an upper truss made of steel for construction on top of concrete piers.

Compared to previously constructed bridges, the gap between piers were wider, and entrance and exit roads connecting the southern and northern ends of the bridge were constructed in three dimensions. In addition, in order to harmonize with the surrounding environment, it was painted in an blue color, considered abnormal at that time.

However, it was impossible to construct the truss structure perfectly with the technology at that time. By the absence of construction capability, the upper truss steel structure was poorly installed, and the connections installed to distribute the load of the vehicles were also poor. As a result, the truss construction method of the Seongsu Bridge became the main cause of the accident.

Politic Reasons
The government's standard labor cost calculation and price of materials, etc. did not have much reality, and the increase of the construction cost seems to be inevitable due to the use of crude or low quality construction materials. In addition, the inspection of each process was not done properly, and there was no system to evaluate the stability of the structure when the construction was completed.

The forced construction to meet the deadline also contributed to the accident. In addition, the Seoul Metropolitan Government did not properly anticipate future traffic demand. Overloads exceeding the permissible limit of 32.4 tons have been added constantly. The system for managing bridge safety did not even work at all.

Rescue
Police officers who were on the part of the bridge when it collapsed, weren’t hurt very badly, and instantly started to rescue the other people. Boats and more officers were used to search for other survivors and to rescue people from the collapsed plate.

Response of the Government
Politicians were frequently changed very frequently after the accident. On the day of the accident, Lee Yeong Duk, the prime minister of Korea resigned. Also, on the same day at 7pm, Lee Won Jong, the mayor of Seoul was discharged from his job, taking responsibility for the disaster.

Woo Myeong Gu, the Governor of Gyeongsangbuk-do Province took his place, only to resign after 10 days as he was found to be the director of Seoul when the bridge was built. Choi Byeong Ryeol took his place, who tried to change the weakly built structures, but dishonorly got changed into the newly elected mayor, as there was the Sampung Department store Collapse accident an year later. It was expected by the government that there would be many traffic jams in Seoul, as it was already flooded with cars. Seoul also discussed building a military operational bridge, but was eventually withdrawn as it was predicted to be insufficient and also contained many safety issues. Fortunately, with the willing use of public transportation and spread of traffic prevented the foreseen traffic congestion.

After the accident, Seoul announced to rebuild the bridge and completely repair the broken parts in 3 months, only to be withdrawn by angry citizens. Eventually, Seoul decided to completely rebuild the bridge from scrap, starting from April 26th, 1995 by Hyundai Constructions, and being completed on July 3rd, 1997.

7 Years after the accident, the court ruled that the direct cause of the accident was the weak construction of Dong-A Constructions.

Reconstruction
After the collapse, the civil engineering academy gave the opinion that the undamaged part could be repaired and used as it was. But considering the emotions of the citizens, it was decided to construct a new one. Hyundai E & C began construction of a new bridge on April 26, 1995 and completed a straight lane on July 3, 1997. Since it was planned to be expanded later, the ramp could not be built. The width and length extension project and the construction of the ramp was completed in December 31, 1998, and the construction was finally completed in September 2004. The newly built Seongsu Bridge is classified as an intensive management subject due to the accident and is thoroughly inspected.

On the other hand, due to the collapse of the Sungsu Bridge, Every bridges in Han river (and other bridges in Korea) became a safety check. Dangsan railway bridge (which was constructed by the same truss type construction method as Sungsu bridge) was judged unsafe and it was demolished on January 1, 1997 and rebuilt. Dangsan railway bridge was reopened on November 22, 1999. Because of this construction, Seoul Subway line 2 was stopped for a while and some stations were closed. Gwangjin bridge, Hannam bridge and Yanghwa bridge were also rebuilt after the collapse of Sungsu bridge.

Trial
Despite of the fact that the collapse was a huge accident, it was difficult to hold responsible people to account. So The Supreme Court of Korea imprisoned design and construction workers of the Sungsu bridge by mobilizing "joint principal offender of criminal negligence", which was previously denied concept in Korea. This case was controversial between the jurists.

Culture
Korean singers, such as DJ DOC and Shin Hae Chul, wrote their lyrics with this collapse and Sampoong department store collapse. Music videos and short films about the collapse were also made.

Memorials
In August 18, 1999, the mermorial stone of Sungsu bridge collapse was built in north of Sungsu Bridge.

Other influences

 * As the biggest cause of collapse was the fatigue of the bridge structure due to excessive load, the systematic enforcement of the overloading vehicle was started to be applied to the vehicles passing on the Han River Bridge.


 * The credibility of DongA Construction, which built Sungsu bridge, declined, and the group broke up during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. DongA construction bankrupted in 2001 and sold to Prime Construction in 2006.


 * Due to the death of Muhak Girl’s High School students, students in Seoul were not allowed to be assigned to high schools across the Han river. This rule lasted 10 years and disappeared.


 * Purple Seoul bus were banned after late 1990’s and painted in other color because purple buses might remind some citizens a purple bus which has fallen in Han river.