Chinese state television has published a video showcasing a guardrail on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge, claiming that it can absorb crashes from vehicles at speeds of over 100 km per hour.
The video, uploaded to CCTV’s Chinese Facebook page on Sunday, included footage shot at a Beijing testing site in the Changping District.
#港珠澳大橋 撞不斷的大橋護欄港珠澳大橋橋面護欄的安全十分重要，為此，工程人員設置了一套模擬裝置，測試大橋護欄能否禁得住各類汽車時速超過100公里的衝撞。#BestofCCTV #紫荊花開20年
Posted by CCTV 中文 on Sunday, 2 July 2017
A tour bus and a private car with test signs were driven from the top of a hill into the guardrail. The guardrail deformed when the cars crashed, and some of the parts flew off from the cars, but the guardrail did not break.
According to the clip, it was shot in June this year. In the credits, it said the units involved included CCTV’s science channel, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Authority, Discovery Channel Asia Pacific, Guangdong Radio & Television Station, and Zhuhai Television.
The post was shared over 1,400 times but viewers were doubtful about its credibility.
“Test the concrete first,” one said. “What’s the point if the bridge columns were made with low grade materials?”
“It seems to be strong,” another said. “But don’t expect too much – the best materials are always used in the official video, but only half, or below 30 per cent, are used in the actual bridge.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who visited Hong Kong last week, stopped by the bridge as his final inspection location before leaving the city.
The safety of the bridge has been questioned recently after the Independent Commission Against Corruption revealed that test results had been falsified by a contractor.
Hundreds of concrete samples were found to have been falsified, but the government said that further tests conducted on new samples showed no problems.
