Worries of Building Collapses Engulf Lebanon as Eyes Turn to Jal el-Dib after Ashrafiyeh

by Naharnet Newsdesk 18 January 2012, 08:50

The government could order on Wednesday the immediate removal of the Jal el-Dib bridge that links Beirut to the north over worries that it could collapse, a day after Interior Minister Marwan Charbel called for taking the necessary precautions around the bridge.

An Nahar daily said that the cabinet decision could come during a session that is scheduled to be held at the Grand Serail. But ministerial sources told the newspaper that a decision to remove the bridge had been taken several weeks ago.

“The decision was taken to remove the bridge as soon as possible to avoid any disaster and to help the flow of traffic,” Charbel said Tuesday.

However, he stressed that engineers from the Council of Development and Reconstruction have reported that the bridge is stable and drivers have no reason to worry about.

Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi told An Nahar that he contacted Charbel on Tuesday after citizens began receiving text messages warning them to avoid using the bridge.

“I contacted the interior minister and we agreed to prevent trucks from crossing it,” he said.

But a woman, who refused to be identified, told Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3) on Wednesday that she was on her way to work early in the morning when she saw traffic officers near the area.

“I approached them and told them why they were allowing trucks to use the bridge given that the interior minister had banned the traffic of heavy-load vehicles,” she said.

“They told me that it’s still early to impose the ban,” the woman scoffed.

But VDL (100.5) reported that the Internal Security Forces began raising signs on the highway asking truck drivers to avoid the bridge.

Aridi told VDL on Tuesday that the bridge should be dismantled as soon as possible.

But its removal will badly affect traffic in the area. The ministerial sources said that a project to build a new bridge needs at least two years to be completed.

The fears over the safety of the Jal el-Dib bridge came after 27 people were killed when an old building in Ashrafiyeh’s Fassouh area collapsed on Sunday evening.

The head of parliament’s public works committee, MP Mohammed Qabbani, has warned that 20,000 such buildings are under the threat of collapse.

The tenants of a three-building compound in the Beirut neighborhood of Msaitbeh have already been asked to be evacuated. The Higher Relief Council will seek to provide them with alternative housing pending the end of repairs carried out by the state-run authority.

https://naharnet.com/stories/en/26957