A significant landslide has destroyed a major bridge on the Xiarong Expressway in Guizhou, China.
On 24 June 2025, intense rainfall triggered a significant landslide at the site of the Houzihé Grand Bridge, which is a part of the Xiarong Expressway (a key road that is also known as Xiamen–Chengdu Expressway (route G76).
The landslide toppled the bridge carrying both sides of the highway. The driver of an articulated truck had a very lucky escape when his vehicle stopped with the cab over the chasm. He was rescued successfully.
The best image I have found of this event is on the website of CNR:-
The failure appears to have removed at least one column supporting the carriageway on each side. Note the red truck partially hanging over the void.
Reports suggest that the landslide occurred at 7:40 am, but that problems had been identified at 5:51 am and that traffic control had been put in place. If that is the case, I am a little unsure as to how the truck ended up in that position.
I believe that the location of this landslide is [26.0111, 108.1241]. This is a Google Earth image of the site, collected in March 2013:-
It is interesting to note that the rear scarp of the landslide appears to coincide with the small road that cuts across the hillside. In 2013 it appears that there were no buildings at this location, but the image above shows that some have been built since. In terms of understanding the failure, I would be interested in determining whether there was a fill slope at this point and/or whether the area had a properly engineered drainage system.
This failure will ask serious questions about the safety of the highway. The piers of the viaduct look to have been extremely vulnerable to this type of failure. A quick scan of Google Earth suggests that this configuration may have been replicated elsewhere. Take a look at this image from Google Earth, for example, from 2020 (located at 26.0817, 107.9566]:-
This failure also highlights another key issue – the management of slopes close to, but not a part of, major infrastructure sites such as roads and railways.
This part of China is suffering intense rainfall at the moment, driving record floods along some of the local rivers. Over 80,000 people have been evacuated.
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