Traffic on the Railway Bridge will be suspended for two months. The viaduct that is over the Bío Bío river was hit by a large trunk, causing the rail to tilt.
An underwater inspection made it possible to detect the problem that keeps traffic suspended over the railway bridge that connects the communes of Concepción and San Pedro de la Paz.
It was a trunk about 5 meters long and one meter in diameterthe one that hit pile 4 of cepa 11, generating the problem in the 133-year-old infrastructure.
The president of EFE, Eric Martin, delivered the report on the damage to the viaduct.
“It is a pile that faces the river from east to west. That blow caused a vertical inclination of the rail, which was what our driver detected,” he said.
Thus, work will begin on the Bridge and transit through the viaduct will be suspended for 60 days.
“In each of the corners of this strain, which is made up of 6 pillars, a new pile is going to be driven -more than 26 meters deep- and then these four new piles are connected and in this way the support of the 11” strain, explained the president of EFE.
The Biotren service that carries about 24,000 passengers a day from Coronel to Concepción, it is the most affected; also the transport of cargo that goes to the port of Coronel.
Passengers will continue to be transferred by bus to continue their journey.
While the authorities ask that the commitments be met and They call to accelerate the works of the new bridge that should be finished in 2025, as stated by the regional governor Rodrigo Díaz, together with the senator Gastón Saavedra. p>
“The bridge we have today, regardless of the repairs made to it, is an old bridge. It needs to be replaced by the new work, therefore, the first thing I have asked is that the work on the new structure be accelerated, Díaz explained.
Meanwhile, Senator Saavedra said that “the bridge being built is not enough, you have to have a bridge for cargo”.
The company EFE also announced an inspection in the vines adjacent to the place where the problem occurred. A review will be carried out from strain 1 to 20, to guarantee the safety of the viaduct.