Causes, Risk Analysis, and Countermeasures of Urban Road Collapse in China from 2019 to 2020

Abstract

Urban road collapse seriously threatens people’s lives and property. In recent years, with the accelerating pace of urbanization in China, the number of road collapse accidents (RCAs) has been increasing. Based on 334 RCAs in China’s inland cities from 2019 to 2020, this paper divided the severity of urban road collapse into five grades and analyzed the causes, risks, and countermeasures of urban road collapse. The results indicated that causes of RCAs include rainfall, underground pipe problems, construction in progress, geological environment, road aging, road overload, and unqualified backfilling. Rainfall and underground pipe problems cause 75% of RCAs, and the risk of RCAs caused by underground pipe problems is the greatest. Its calculated value is 6.13, which is 3.2 times that of construction in progress and 22 times that of unqualified backfilling. Construction in progress and geological environment problems are more likely to lead to RCAs with higher severity. Underground pipe problems, rainfall, construction in progress, and geological environmental problems are all more likely to cause RCAs in summer, resulting in 45.9% of RCAs occurring in summer. The risk of RCAs in June is the highest, and its calculated value is 1.5 times that in September and 25 times that in February. According to the calculated values and geographical location factors, China was divided into five regions. Finally, the countermeasures before and after road collapse were introduced.