On the morning of September 14, Mr. Le Van Bao - Vice Chairman of Quang Tri Provincial People's Committee was present at the scene of My Chanh railway bridge (Nam Hai Lang commune) to inspect the situation and direct the handling of the incident of 2 sand dredging barges trapped here.
Mr. Le Van Bao requested Quang Tri Provincial Police to coordinate with Nam Hai Lang commune and the salvage unit to urgently deploy a plan to quickly remove vehicles from the trapped locations, ensuring safety for the railway bridge and traffic through the area.
Currently, businesses related to the barges have contacted two ship salvage units in Hue and Da Nang to study and salvage the ships.
According to the salvage unit's plan, forces will use cranes and excavators combined with divers to handle it. If necessary, the barge will be sawn and cut to be released from the bridge pier area.
It is expected that the largest barge will take about 1 day to be removed from its current location. However, the smaller barge is overturned and flooded, so handling is more difficult. The total expected time to complete the salvage is about 4 days.
At the scene, functional forces inspected and assessed the extent of the incident's impact. The results showed that the incident did not seriously affect the structure of My Chanh railway bridge as well as the railway line through the area.
Currently, trains are still allowed to travel through the bridge at a limited speed of 15km/h. The water from the O Lau River has receded, the roof of the barge has been sawn off, so it is no longer entangled in the bridge girder. The vehicle has now been lowered, about 1m away from the railway bridge girder, but is still submerged and placed in the area of the railway bridge pier and My Chanh road bridge.
Mr. Tran Minh Tuan - Director of Thuan Long Quang Binh Co., Ltd. said that the barges were brought by the unit to the sand mine area for gathering, not yet put into operation. At the time of the incident, the vehicles were anchored at the sand mine project upstream of the O Lau River. However, the flood rose rapidly for about 2 hours, causing the water to rise sharply, the anchor ropes to break, causing the barges to drift freely towards My Chanh railway bridge.
Previously, on September 13, 3 sand dredging barges were swept away by floodwaters on the O Lau River, then trapped in the My Chanh railway bridge area. One large barge collided with the bridge girder area, posing a risk of affecting railway traffic, and 1 barge overturned, the remaining barge was cut the rope and drifted on its own. Functional forces then organized handling, cutting off the cabin part of the barge to lower the height of the vehicle, reducing the risk of impact on the bridge.
