Bridge collapses months after opening in China’s Sichuan province

A bridge in Sichuan, China, collapsed months after opening, raising concerns about construction quality.

A bridge in China has collapsed just months after opening, raising doubts about the quality of Beijing’s vast infrastructure projects.

A portion of the Hongqi bridge in the southwestern province of Sichuan, which spans 2486ft along a national highway linking the country’s heartland to Tibet, was filmed breaking apart this week.

Footage shared widely on Chinese social media captured the moment the bridge gave way, sending slabs of concrete and clouds of dust crashing into the river and mountainside below.

There were no reports of casualties. Local authorities said the bridge had been closed a day earlier after cracks were spotted in its structure and on nearby slopes and roads.

But conditions on the mountainside worsened, triggering landslides that caused the approach bridge and roadbed to give way, officials said.

The Hongqi Bridge in Shuangjiangkou, Sichuan Province, China, partially collapsed today. Authorities believe that cracks in the nearby mountainside — likely caused by water accumulation from a nearby reservoir — played a major role in the incident. pic.twitter.com/v1bdbj5KLJ

— Weather Monitor (@WeatherMonitors) November 11, 2025

Sichuan province is known for its high seismic activity, and the highway traverses an area devastated by a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in 2008 that killed tens of thousands of people, a disaster blamed in part on poor construction.

The sudden collapse has raised concerns over the quality of China’s construction and whether sufficient geological surveys were carried out. Local authorities are attempting to downplay the incident, describing it as an isolated natural event.

It comes only months after another major accident, when a railway bridge under construction in Qinghai province collapsed in August, killing at least 12 workers.

Completed in January, the Hongqi bridge was part of China’s broader strategy to spur economic growth in poorer mountainous regions, intended as a symbol of its infrastructure ambitions.

The country has invested heavily in building roads, highways and rail lines. However, it has faced increasing scrutiny over its declining quality control as well as the construction of large-scale infrastructure projects in geologically volatile areas.

Authorities said a detour route has been opened and an investigation into the collapse is under way. The Sichuan Road and Bridge Group, which built the bridge, said there is no timetable for reopening the highway.

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