Wallonia has more than 4,500 viaducts and bridges which are inspected every three years, informs Thursday La dernière Heure, after the catastrophe in Genoa, Italy, where a structure collapsed, causing about forty deaths. According to Pierre Gilles, Inspector General of the Technical Expertise Department for Roads and Buildings in Wallonia, “Walloon bridges and viaducts are inspected, on average, every three years (previously, it was every five years, ed.). It amounts in fact to a visual inspection to detect possible cracks or corrosion.’’
The structures are then classified on a progressive scale from needing priority repairs to being without defects. “In case of the slightest doubt, we either reduce the number of lanes, or we close the structure to traffic,” insists the expert.
The Brussels Times
