Industry: Marine & Offshore · Country: India · Date: 27 Aug 2025 · Incident type: Near Miss
During construction of a six-lane river bridge over the Ganga at Prayagraj, a precast concrete bridge segment was being transferred onto a barge using a truck. While the load was being moved into position on the barge, the combined setup lost stability and toppled into the water. No personnel were injured.
During construction of a six-lane river bridge over the Ganga at Prayagraj, a precast concrete bridge segment was being transferred onto a barge using a truck. While the load was being moved into position on the barge, the combined setup lost stability and toppled into the water. No personnel were injured.
A load-out onto a barge is a marine lifting and stability operation, not a transport operation. The moment a load leaves fixed ground, buoyancy and ballast become the controlling factors, and the ground stops forgiving mistakes. Key preventive actions: - Treat every barge load-out as a critical lift. Require a written marine stability assessment covering the load at each stage of its travel across the deck, not only in its final position. - Assign a competent marine or barge superintendent with authority to stop the operation, independent of the construction schedule. - Ballast the vessel progressively as the load moves, with defined draft and trim limits and a person monitoring them in real time. - Establish hold points before the load crosses from shore onto the vessel, with a physical check of ramp, linkspan and mooring condition. - Keep all personnel outside the toppling and swing zone during transfer. The absence of injury here was fortunate positioning, not control. - Verify ground and ramp bearing capacity, tide and current conditions before the operation begins.