Chloride corrosion blamed for bridge collapse.

After an almost week long investigation, it has been announced that the cause of last Saturday's bridge collapse can be put down to chloride ions seeping into the bridges steel reinforcing cables causing them to rust away from the inside.

Speaking at a press conference at the track, William Lowndes of Tindall Corporation, the firm who built the trusses, announced. "Preliminary results of the investigations have revealed that two double tees failed in the centre of the tee section, in the area surrounding the steel reinforcing stand." Lowndes also explained that when manufacturing such a structure, its' centre is plugged with a grout type material. During the announcement Lowndes also stated that initial findings have shown, "unexpectedly high concentrations of calcium chloride in the grout material."

The rusted cables were made of steel which can be highly susceptible to any form of chloride. One of the consultants in the case, Dr Charles Manning said, "I've been in this business 50 years, I've seen corrosion on pre-stressed members, but the corrosion you see is fairly uniform corrosion when water gets in the end and it comes down along the steel. I've never seen anything like this."

Asked if he would have spotted the corrosion had he inspected the bridge one week before its' collapse, Manning replied. "I wouldn't, I would have bet my life that I could never find something like this inside when I hooked up at the outside. Because what happened is these were eaten up, but they were eaten up within the [grout] plug."

107 people were injured when the 40 foot section of bridge snapped and tumbled some 19 feet onto the motorway below. Nearly a week after the disaster, there are still 37 people receiving hospital treatment, three in a critical condition.