The governor of Acre, Mailza Assis (PP), said this Saturday (6) that the company responsible for the construction of will be held responsible. According to the governor, the Frei Paolino Baldassari bridge, in Sena Madureira, was still “within the warranty period”. The work, which cost R$36 million, was inaugurated in March 2024, under the management of Mailza’s predecessor, Gladson Cameli (PP).
The construction was supervised by the Department of Highways, Waterway and Airport Infrastructure of Acre (Deracre) and carried out in less than two years by Construtora Cidade. Estadão tries to contact the company.
In a statement, The Acre government cited that the Civil Code defines that contractors are responsible for the soundness and safety of works for a period of five years. In view of this, he informed that the State Attorney General’s Office will request advance relief to force the company to rebuild the bridge or offer a crossing solution for the Iaco River – over which the structure that collapsed passed.
The Prosecutor’s Office further stated that is considering requesting a precautionary freeze on the company’s assets, for the full value of the construction contract. Another measure will be to require the construction company to guarantee assistance to the four injured people – one of whom is in a very serious condition. The governor said there is no set deadline for reconstruction
“The company has already made engineers available to evaluate the structure, and all measures are being taken so that the losses do not fall on the population,” said Mailza, according to a statement from the state government.
The Acre government stated that the work was contracted in an integrated modality. “In this modality, the company Construtora Cidade assumed full responsibility for the basic project, executive project and execution of the work, being solely responsible for the technical decisions that determined the design and construction of the equipment”, he announced.
The state government added that “the technical project, as well as all the analyzes involving the construction, were the responsibility of the company, with no participation from Deracre or the State government in the design and execution of the project”.
It is worth contrasting that, at the time the work was delivered, in December 2023, A statement from the State government highlighted the participation of state employees in the speed of construction.
“We worked from the beginning to work on construction in winter and summer. We anticipated the floods and now we have managed to deliver the bridge to the population”, said the engineer responsible for the work, Thalia Kamila Gomes, from Deracre, in the 2023 statement.
Variation in river level
The Acre government claims that what may have caused the bridge to collapse is the so-called “fallen earth effect”, erosion on river banks. According to the state administration, this is a common phenomenon in young rivers in formation, such as the Iaco River, which has high density floods and severe drought.
“It should be noted that the company has extensive experience in building bridges in the Amazon region and, therefore, it is expected that its projects include solutions for the phenomenon of fallen lands to guarantee the safety of the work”, he stated in a note.
