The Primorye regional prosecutor has opened a check into the condition of the bridge linking Vladivostok with Russky Island after various media reported that the cable-stayed structure was showing signs of collapse.
"The Primorye regional prosecutor, with the involvement of the Far Eastern branch of the Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Atomic Inspection, has organized an inspection of the bridge to Russky Island from the Eastern Bosphorus Strait to determine its compliance with technical regulations," a statement on the prosecutor's website said Friday.
Members of the agency's Far Eastern branch will carry out the inspection of the bridge, though "the course of the inspection is under special control of the regional prosecutor," the statement said.
Various media reported earlier that the cable components of the bridge had collapsed. Members of the regional administration responded by citing specialists who said the casing on the cables had simply become damaged by the weather, and that the damage would in no way affect the bridge itself, Interfax reported.
The bridge, built especially for the APEC summit hosted in Vladivostok last September, was the subject of several scandals ahead of its unveiling, with the Federal Road Agency retracting its own statement in August that the bridge wouldn't be ready in time for the APEC summit.
Many local residents also criticized the regional government for its lavish spending on the bridge, which cost 35.4 billion rubles.
In early January, Primorye police announced that over 100 million rubles ($3 million) worth of construction materials had been stolen from one of the contractors working on the bridge. Several people were charged over the matter.
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