Experts testified that the Chinese steel in the Bay Bridge was too brittle.

By K. Lloyd Billingsley | Independent Institute

Summarized by Probe International

For the original article this summary is based on, see the publisher’s website here.

A landslide that caused the newly built Hongqi Bridge in China to fracture and collapse on Nov. 11 has revived safety concerns about the Bay Bridge in California—constructed using Chinese steel and labor, diverging from the state’s tradition of using American materials.

California politicians rejected federal funding that would have mandated American steel, leading to the bridge’s construction by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries, a company with no prior bridge-building experience. The project was completed a decade late and $5 billion over budget, with experts later testifying that the Chinese steel was too brittle, leading to cracked bolts and rods, which required repairs on all 750 panels of the bridge.

In 2013, long metal rods began snapping due to hydrogen embrittlement from the grade BD steel used. Geologist Michael Morgan testified that safety issues were covered up and called for a criminal investigation. When state audits failed to act, he shared his findings with the Sacramento Bee, which reported on various safety concerns, including welds and corrosion.

By early 2014, water leaks had caused visible corrosion on the suspension structure. In response to these issues, then-Gov. Jerry Brown infamously remarked, “I mean, look, $h*% happens.” Structural engineering professor Abolhasaan Astaneh-Asi warned against using the bridge, stating that a single component failure could lead to a total collapse, highlighting the risks of its outdated design. During Kamala Harris’s tenure as Attorney General, no criminal investigation into the bridge was conducted.

The Hongqi Bridge collapse underscores the risks of infrastructure built in seismically active regions, such as Sichuan and the San Francisco Bay Area, where a major earthquake is anticipated by 2032. As California grapples with its infrastructure challenges, the future of legislative transparency remains uncertain, especially after Gov. Gavin Newsom shutdown the California Channel, a public service channel that broadcast legislative proceedings and other public policy content until its closure in 2019.