Total rehab of Quezon Bridge pushed

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will push for the “total rehabilitation” of the fire-damaged Quezon Bridge in Manila after the reinforcement of its structure is completed.

Reynaldo Tagudando, DPWH-National Capital Region (NCR) director, on Monday said that “once the bridge repair works are completed, we will program the total rehabilitation of the structure” which was built sometime in the 1940s.

He reported that “the construction of temporary shoring using steel H-piles (on floor beams) to reinforce the bridge continued even during Holy Week.”

“More tests will also be conducted after this activity to determine the full extent of the damage inflicted by the fire on the bridge’s structural integrity,” he added.

On April 10, a fire razed an undisclosed number of shanties under the 102.4-meter-long single span steel bridge.

DPWH engineers Blesilda Ramos, Ricardo de Vera and Eduardo Santos earlier said that the bridge’s structural integrity was adversely affected by the “deformation and buckling.”

In a report to DPWH-NCR and the agency’s Bureau of Design, they also observed that the fire damaged the “end bays of the bridge’s steel truss, cross bracing, stringers and floor beams.”

“The bottom chord, especially the middle truss, is discolored due to severe exposure to the fire,” they added.

The engineers recommended the construction of temporary shoring using steel H-piles at three affected bays of the bridge.

Since the fire, Quezon Bridge has been off-limits to heavy vehicles. “The bridge’s traffic load is limited to 10 tons (per vehicle),” according to Tagudando.