Construction terms for a bridge in Vladivostok, which caught fire on Monday afternoon, will remain unchanged, a deputy head of the construction company said on Tuesday.
The bridge is among infrastructure objects to be built for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2012. It will connect the mainland part of the city with Russky Island, where the main activities of the summit are to take place.
“According to preliminary estimates, the fire won’t affect construction terms,” said Alexander Yakovlev, deputy head of the TMK construction company.
The formwork at one of the bridge’s pylons caught fire on Monday at 13:00 Moscow time [9:00 GMT]. The fire spread to the area of 500 square meters and it took almost 11 hours to extinguish it. 167 people and 38 vehicles took part in the firefighting effort.
In 2009, the bridge was insured for more than 18 billion rubles (almost $570 million)
Prosecutors have already started a probe to establish the cause of the fire and the structure’s overall fire safety. The region’s emergencies ministry said “human factor” was seen as the most likely cause of the blaze.