The construction company Cidades, responsible for the Frei Paolino Baldassari bridge, which last Friday, the 5th, said, in a note, that there was soil instability identified e recommended that the structure be closed one day before the collapse. According to the text, in addition to the soil erosiontechnical teams found cracks e unevenness at different points in the surrounding area.
“Preliminary surveys carried out in the field identified significant soil movements in an area much wider than the bridge itself, covering approximately 16 thousand square meters and also reaching adjacent areas of the neighborhood located nearby”, states the company.
The company also claims that it sent to the Acre Highway Department (Deracre), on Thursday (4), “at around 1 pm (Acre time), a formal recommendation for the total closure of the bridge, including pedestrian traffic, given the risk identified by its teams.”
Also according to the note, preliminary assessments showed “indications compatible with a process of geotechnical instability known as the fallen earth phenomenon, characterized by movements of large masses of soil associated with erosive processes and natural variations in river levels.”
On Saturday (5), the government considered that erosion on the banks of rivers could have impacted the structure – but pointed out that the company has “vast 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.”
According to the state administration, this is a phenomenon common to young rivers in formationsuch as the Iaco River, which has high density floods and severe drought.
Warranty period
A . According to Mailza Assis (PP), the bridge was still “within the warranty period”. The work, which cost R$36 millionwas inaugurated in March 2024, under the management of its 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.
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 protection to force the company to rebuild the bridge or offer a crossing solution for the Iaco River – over which the collapsed structure passed.
The Prosecutor’s Office further stated that studies requesting precautionary blocking of assets of the company, in the full value of the construction contract. Another measure will be to require the construction company to guarantee assistance to the four injured – one of them 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 way. “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.
