Report: Bridge collapse due to uneven foundation

The commission set up to investigate the cause of one of the country's worst accidents determined it was an "unfortunate circumstance" and did not assign blame, the Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper said.

Construction Minister Nguyen Hong Quan, head of the commission, said police are still investigating the possible administrative or criminal liability of people involved in the Sept. 26, 2007, accident, the newspaper reported.

About 80 people were also injured in the collapse of the 330-foot section of the Can Tho bridge, one of the largest construction projects in Vietnam.

All of the victims were Vietnamese workers helping construct the Japanese-financed bridge, a 1.7-mile span that will link the southern province of Vinh Long to Can Tho, the biggest city in the Mekong Delta.

"The uneven sinking limited to the foundation of a temporary pillar is considered an unfortunate circumstance that is difficult to foresee in normal designing," the newspaper quoted the commission's report as saying.

Soil-drilling tests of the foundation found soft sand in one sample and relatively solid sand in the other, which left the pillar lopsided and later resulted in bolts and crossbars breaking and a domino collapse of the bridge, the newspaper quoted the report as saying.

Asked whether the accident could have been prevented if the contractors had performed the drill tests prior to setting the pillar, Quan said even American construction standards do not require multiple soil drilling tests for one temporary pillar.

The bridge was being built by a consortium of three Japanese companies, Taisei Corp., Kajima Corp. and Nippon Steel Corp. Nippon Koei-Chodai is the chief consultant on the $218 million project, which was largely funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

Vietnamese leaders have told Japanese officials that the accident should not affect bilateral relations, state media have reported.