Disaster warning over race for subways

An academic from the Chinese Academy of Engineering criticised the competitive drive for building subways in 28 mainland cities without careful geological prospecting and warned of potential man-made disasters ahead.

Wang Mengshu was quoted in yesterday's 21st Century Business Herald as saying mainland authorities were building subway projects with unreasonably short deadlines, unreasonably low construction fees and irresponsibly vague blueprints.

'Because underground projects are irreversible and can't be demolished to rebuild, [we should] properly evaluate the geological risks ... and shouldn't leave regret and disaster to the next generation,' he said.

Both Shenzhen and Guangzhou have had safety problems exposed in their subway systems. On Tuesday, at least 25 people were injured when an ascending escalator in one of the busiest subway stations in Shenzhen jolted to a stop and reversed.

In October, an engineer who inspected the newly built Guangzhou airport link wrote in his blog that the concrete used in the project had failed a compression resistance test and the entire subway tunnel could be flooded if the concrete collapsed and caused water pipes next to the tunnel to burst.

Although Guangzhou authorities later publicly confirmed what the engineer claimed, the airport link was put into operation in late October as scheduled.