The lack of maintenance on the bridge over Lake Maracaibo, one of the largest in Venezuela, has had serious consequences on its infrastructure, which may have short-term repercussions and affect land communications and commercial relations between Maracaibo and the neighboring cities of Zulia and the rest of the country
The damage that the General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge, also called “El Colosso” has presented, due to the lack of maintenance, has put the carriers of the different routes that travel to the city of Maracaibo on high alert. They assure that of 100% maintenance, they only correct only 40% because they do not attend to all the faults that the viaduct presents.
The National Academy of Engineering and Habitat of Venezuela published in February 2023 a statement in which it alerts about “possible damage to the structure” of the bridge that extends 8.6 kilometers over Lake Maracaibo and warns that if this situation is not corrected it could “endanger the safety of people and vehicles” that they transit it
The drivers that are part of the daily routes that cross the bridge ask the authorities to carry out more complex maintenance so that events such as the fires that occurred in 2018 and 2019 are not repeated, on which a detailed evaluation of the conditions has not yet been made. affectations that allow to know the real conditions of the bridge.
The engineering experts from the Academy agree on this, since they point out that these structural damages originated due to the two fires due to electrical interconnection failures that the authorities were trying to install along the bridge. The document published by the Academy specifies that both fires “occurred inside the table-beams of the cable-stayed sections of piers 23 and 25. This concern grows because more than four years have gone by without a detailed evaluation of the affectations, in order to determine the capacity of current real response of the structure, in order to rehabilitate the disturbed sectors”, says the text.
Two fires occurred in August 2018 and February 2019
“The carriers are looking at the conditions with some concern because we have made a visual inspection of the bridge over the Lake (of Maracaibo). The bridge has certain conditions of corrosion, it can be noticed in the piles. There is deterioration in the asphalt, there is separation in the joints of the bridge (joints). Some maintenance work has been done on it, however, it does not compensate for the deterioration that it presents so far. Let’s remember that the Rafael Urdaneta bridge has been in use for 60 years and the abandonment is notable,” said Edwin Palacios, carrier of the Los Puertos-Maracaibo route.
Palacios stressed that the deterioration has been progressive, and that the bridge continually presents failures: “imagine that the bridge can collapse at any time in a thought that is always with us. It is impossible to determine the moment when a failure may occur, but we know that if there is not adequate and continuous maintenance that is needed, there will come a day when it collapses, “he said.
Some drivers stated that the lack of maintenance makes them fear being present in a tragedy caused by deterioration.
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“The bridge hasn’t changed at all. They say they are improving it, but the process has been slow. They only do preventive and corrective maintenance to show people that they are working, more efficiency is needed,” said Andy Bracho, representative of the PAMA transportation line.
Argenis Sánchez, a Zulian carrier, said that the years that the bridge lasted without maintenance was what marked the deterioration. “I have been working as a transporter for 23 years, I travel to Maracaibo every day and in previous years one could cross the bridge calmly because there was permanent maintenance, of course, it was other times, but we must be clear, previous governments did not put it hand to the bridge, knowing that it is a canal that benefits us all and needs maintenance because if it does not collapse».
The drivers commented that the taxes they pay to travel on the bridge over the lake should serve to have a better investment in repairs. A maintenance plan is needed according to the conditions in which it is found.
The carriers assure that they have detected situations that at some point could cause damage to users. For example, the joints, since they affirm that when heavy loads pass, the bridge joints tremble, to the point that they have risen and damaged vehicles. They invite you to pay attention to this type of situation to avoid accidents.
José Luis Carrasquero, a carrier in the region, reported that they have been carrying out maintenance on the Rafael Urdaneta bridge for eight months, but previously it had not been done. “We have realized that maintenance is being done because the bridge has been closed on several occasions. They have modified various structures in what they call the slabs. I have learned of this from several people who work on the bridge who have informed us that they are working on rollers, slabs, scissors, among others, all of which are for the bridge joints. The user who passes now will notice that the bridge is returning to its original structure.
Carrasquero also emphasized that maintenance benefits the city as a whole. «The bridge is not in better condition than before, but it is changing, they are improving its structure, they are painting the gayas, they are removing the old bottom, they are putting a new anticorrosive, I pass daily and I realize what They are doing”.
These carriers demand that maintenance be constant for the preservation of the Rafael Urdaneta bridge, an architectural icon of the Zulia region, they also denounce that they currently do not have a crane. «We do not have a crane, we drivers of many transport lines suffer every time we have an accident because there is no crane to tow us, sometimes an accident occurs on the road and it takes time to arrive to help. We need the cranes to return to the way they were before,” he told SuchWhichJulio López, transporter.
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