Everything shook as part of the bridge under construction crashed

“It’s so quiet now,” says the 56-year-old man in the front garden of his house, directly opposite the industrial estate in Lochem. A new bridge over the Twente Canal has been under construction here for some time. “I take a look every day,” says the man, binoculars around his neck. Every now and then he brings it up to his eyes to look at police officers and firefighters walking around in groups and busy discussing.

On Wednesday the man was working in his home office when he suddenly heard a loud bang. “Everything was shaking,” he says. “Everything.” When he walks outside he sees a large white arch, which moments before was hanging in the air on cables from a crane. Then a cacophony of sirens sounds. And now silence.

Wednesday was supposed to be a milestone in the construction of a bridge over the Twente Canal near Lochem in Achterhoek, but it went horribly wrong. Part of the bridge collapsed around 11 a.m., killing two construction workers and seriously injuring two others. The place of residence or age of the victims is not yet known. Emergency services arrive en masse in the morning and early afternoon. The injured are taken to hospital, and one deceased is recovered.

Then it’s time to discuss, plan and wait, in a depressed atmosphere. One of the deceased is stuck at a great height, on top of a huge steel ‘scaffolding’ in front of the bridge. His orange work suit is visible from the ground. The body must be recovered by specialist teams.

Rattling steel

Contractor BAM would hoist the largest parts of the ‘Nettelhorster Bridge’, the girders and arches, into the air on a large construction site next to the canal on Wednesday and weld them together. The job attracted a handful of interested parties.

BAM previously created a special viewpoint on top of a green container next to the construction site. Also standing there was Nieke Hoitink, a journalist who covered the construction of the bridge for a regional newspaper the Stentor follows. She watches some construction workers take the elevator to the top of the steel scaffolding. Then, while lifting one of the arches of the bridge, she hears a loud bang. “The large arch was attached to two cranes, and seemed to come loose from one crane,” says Hoitink. “I heard rattling steel and the bow swayed back and forth tremendously.” She sees people, she doesn’t know exactly how many, falling from the enormous steel construction.

In the morning it became known that the highest point of the bridge could not be reached due to the strong wind later in the day. It is not yet known whether the wind had anything to do with the accident.

“I cannot say exactly how this could happen,” says André Meilink of the North and East Gelderland Safety Region (VNOG). The labor inspectorate will have to investigate this. The Dutch Safety Board is already on site at the end of the afternoon. “The injured have been taken to hospital and their injuries are not life-threatening,” Meilink said.

About 35 people were at work at the time of the accident. “Many construction workers saw or heard the accident,” he said. They are accommodated in the canteen of an adjacent company, where victim support is available.

“I have been working at the VNOG for thirty years, and this is an exceptional industrial accident,” says Meilink. It is now quiet on the construction site because the situation is “static”, he explains. “We know that one body still needs to be recovered, but the situation on the ground is potentially dangerous. We can no longer send emergency responders there.”

Firefighters from the Technical Assistance Specialism (STH) walk around the site in orange uniforms. They are used in complex accidents, such as collapsed buildings. After 2 p.m., people from the Urban Search and Rescue team (USAR), which specializes in accidents or disasters where people are trapped, also arrive.

While an aerial platform is being placed next to the steel scaffolding, Mayor of Lochem Sebastiaan van ‘t Erve and Gelderland deputy Klaas Ruitenberg (provincial infrastructure, SGP) speak to the press. He is “shocked,” says Van ‘t Erve. “The province has been discussing this bridge for twenty years and planning for five years, and then it goes so wrong in one day.”

Important for the Achterhoek

The bridge would become an important link in a new ring road that should connect the Achterhoek with the A1. “The entire Achterhoek has an interest in this,” says Van ‘t Erve. The ring road relieves Lochem of freight traffic, which still rumbles through the city. Deputy Ruitenberg cannot say how much delay the project will experience. “I am now working with the victims and their relatives.”

Van ‘t Erve immediately went to the canteen to talk to the BAM employees. What did he say? He sighs for a long time. “I let them talk. Most people who were there saw it happen and they mainly want a listening ear. They are deeply affected.”

Around five o’clock, the STH and USAR rescue workers manage to recover the body of the second fatal victim. On Wednesday evening, the Labor Inspectorate reported that the fatalities were a Pole and a Belgian.

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