Chongqing Municipality, southwest China - Aug 30, 2017
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1. Various of demolition of bridge
2. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Meng Xiangdong, director, expert committee, Chongqing Association of Engineering Blasting (ending with shot 3):
"The blast was very successful and was just as we had anticipated. The bridge was located in a cluster of buildings. The demolition had to be complete, environmentally-friendly and conducive to post-blast clean-up."
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3. Various of blast site
4. Bridge
5. Worker on bridge
6. Explosives installed on bridge
7. Bridge
8. Worker on bridge
9. Various of wooden fence outside residential building

10. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Li Hongtao, vice general manager, municipal utilities department, Chongqing Construction Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (ending with shot 11):
"After the successful demolition, we need two to three months for clearing the debris and resuming navigation. After the clean-up, we will begin constructing the piers and the upper structures. The new bridge will be completed and open to traffic in about a year."
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11. Buildings, bridge over river
12. Various of bridge

Chinese engineers on Wednesday had to blast off a 41-year-old bridge to give way to the construction of a new bridge at the same location in Chongqing in southwest China.

A total of 1.5 tons of explosives scattered in close to 3,000 blast holes for millisecond delay blasting for the sake of saving the residential buildings on both banks of the river. Over 10,000 residents had to evacuate from those buildings before the actual blast.

"The blast was very successful and was just as we had anticipated. The bridge was located in a cluster of buildings. The demolition had to be complete, environmentally-friendly and conducive to post-blast clean-up," said Meng Xiangdong, director of the expert committee of Chongqing Association of Engineering Blasting.

The clean-up takes two to three months to help resume navigation along the river and a new bridge will start construction after that.

"After the clean-up, we will begin constructing the piers and upper structures. The new bridge will be completed and open to traffic in about a year," said Li Hongtao, vice general manager of municipal utilities of the Chongqing Construction Engineering Group Co., Ltd.

The demolished bridge was built back in 1976. It was the first bridge across the Yujiang River in Pengshui of the Chongqing Municipality.