Railway line builders under fire for construction negligence

The China Railway Corporation (CRC) said it would investigate any possibilities of shoddy construction work on a high-speed railway line connecting Shanghai to Kunming in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, after safety problems of the line were “exposed” and caused concern among the public.

China Railway, which administers the country’s railway lines, was reported to have reprimanded an inspection company and four other companies involved in the design, construction, and supervision of the section in Southwest China’s Guizhou Province, and levied penalties on them, the Beijing Youth Daily reported, citing a notice from CRC.

There were several problems in the construction work on the Guizhou section, including inferior materials and illegally contracting out the project to other companies, the China Railway notice said.

The main contractor of the Guizhou section, China Railway’s Bureau Group 20 Corporation and its Construction Bureau 23, have been barred from bidding on mid-to-large projects for a year and will be held liable for 90 percent of the cost of repairs.

The problem was aired by the Sina Weibo user “guzhourementoutiao”, who added photos of faulty construction work on one of the section’s tunnels, getting a lot of attention.

The Weibo supplier also posted internal documents showing that China Railway was demanding an investigation on the companies’ construction work, after several mishaps occurred between June and July.

Some tunnels have shown safety hazards, such as cracking and leakage, especially during this year’s rainy season, the Xinhua News Agency reported, citing sources from the Shanghai-Kunming High-speed Railway Company.

China Railway said that there is zero tolerance for any safety hazards and that its priority is always traveler safety and railway quality, Xinhua said, adding that the railway authorities will not ignore any quality issues in railway projects.

The Shanghai-Kunming train line opened in December 2016, connecting China’s financial center with popular tourist sites in the southwest, such as Huangguoshu Waterfall in Anshun, Guizhou Province and Dianchi Lake in Kunming, capital of Southwest China’s Yunnan Province.

China had the world’s longest high-speed rail network, 22,000-kilometer-long, by the end of 2016, or 60 percent of the world’s total, and that is expected to increase to 45,000 km by 2030, Xinhua reported in September.