/ 11 February 1999

BRIDGE CRACKS ‘TOO WIDE’

A CONSTRUCTION engineer told the Inyaka bridge inquiry on Thursday that cracks which appeared in the bridge before it collapsed were wider than allowed. Ricardo de Sastet, an engineer for the bridge’s builders Concor Construction, told the inquiry that cracks seen on the bridge before the collapse were 1,2 metres long and two millimetres wide — 10 times the acceptable width for cracks. De Sastnet was the most senior Concor employee on the site and was on the bridge when it collapsed on July 6 last year. He jumped off as it fell, and broke his wrist.