Chinese state broadcaster CCTV published a video of a guardrail along the Hong Kong-Zhuhai- Macau bridge, claiming that it can absorb crashes from vehicles traveling at speeds of over 100km per hour.
The video, uploaded to CCTV’s Chinese Facebook page last week, was shot at a crash test site in Beijing’s Changping District.
In the video, a tour bus and a private car – both with test signs – are driven from the top of a hill into a guardrail. Parts of the vehicles broke off upon impact with the guardrail, which was badly bent but did not break.
The clip was allegedly shot in June this year. In the credits, the video states that parties involved in the filming included CCTV’s science channel, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Authority, Discovery Channel Asia Pacific, Guangdong Radio and Television Station, and Zhuhai Television.
The post was shared more than 1,400 times, but viewers doubt its credibility.
“Test the concrete first,” one viewer commented. “What’s the point if the bridge columns were made with low quality materials?”
“It seems to be strong,” another stated. “But don’t expect too much – the best materials are always used in the official video, but only half, or below 30 percent, are used in the actual bridge.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the bridge as the final stop of his tour of Hong Kong earlier this month.
The bridge’s safety was called into question after the Independent Commision Against Corruption of Hong Kong revealed that a contractor had falsified the concrete test results.
Hundreds of concrete samples were found to have been falsified, but the government said that additional tests on new samples showed no problems.
The bridge is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
