Guangzhou's urban and rural construction commission confirmed the recent online doubts about the safety of a part of the city s northern subway extension but said it is safe to use, domestic media reported Friday.
The commission assigned a team of experts to examine the passage in question, on Subway Line 3, after Zhong Jizhang, a retired engineer at the Guangzhou Huijian Center of Engineering Quality and Safety Monitoring, made online statements in August that there had been a coverup in quality inspection tests.
The commission said last week that the concrete issues would have no decisive impact on the quality of the entire project and could meet safety requirements.
Zhong s claim about the newly-constructed extension tunnel triggered worries about the safety of the city s subway projects over the past two months.
Zhong said in his blog that the extension couldn t handle the pressure it was designed for and that the tunnels had been given the all-clear last year in spite of the substandard quality of the work.
The commission confirmed that the Guangzhou Metro Corp. (GMC) discovered the flaw in October last year and asked the project s designer to evaluate the structural safety.
The design institute concluded that, in spite of the concrete flaw, the passage still met all structural safety requirements.
However, the New Express Daily disputed this in a report that said tests by two companies hired by the GMC and the construction company Beijing Chang Cheng Bilfinger Berger Construction Engineering Corp. (BCBB) found that the concrete in part of the passage failed to meet design specifications.
Su Zhenyu, a manager in the quality security department of GMC, said they were given a falsified report from BCBB.
The line is scheduled for completion this month so that it will be ready for operation by November, before the Asian Games. Guangzhou has plans for its subway network to have eight lines for the event. (Cao Zhen)
