Minas Gerais Fire Department disregards risk of collapse of the São Francisco Viaduct, on the Ring Road
The São Francisco Viaduct, on the Belo Horizonte Ring Road, was closed this Monday morning (Dec 23, 2024) for an inspection. The corporation’s investigation concluded that there is no imminent risk of the route collapsing.
Even though there was no risk of the viaduct collapsing, a “dry expansion joint”. According to a note from Dnit (National Department of Transport Infrastructure), this resembles a crack, but the department denies that it is one.
The municipality also said that it carries out constant monitoring on the viaduct and that the road does not have “any indication of problems in the structure”.
The Belo Horizonte-Rio de Janeiro direction was closed for around 5 minutes. The direction Belo Horizonte-Vitória, for 15 minutes. The closure period caused traffic slowdowns.
Watch (44 sec):
RING ROAD
São Francisco Viaduct was closed this morning for evaluation by CBMMG and DER, the location has already been opened for traffic. Track towards Vitória
— BR381 Urgente ™️🇧🇷 (@Br381_urgente)
Here is the full note from Dnit:
“The Dnit informs that it carried out a preventive inspection of the viaduct and did not identify any signs of problems in the structure.”
“We emphasize that this is not a crack but rather a dry expansion joint of the viaduct, as it is dry, every time resurfacing is done, it goes over this joint. And as the expansion joint moves, this separation of the asphalt appears that resembles a crack, but we say it is not.”
“Our teams constantly monitor the work and it does not present any problems that could lead to a ban. We also emphasize that Dnit is carrying out a project to widen this viaduct”.
