On the fabrication of material tests for polyethylene cylindrical tubes used in prestressed concrete bridges.

East Nippon Expressway Co., Ltd. /Central Japan Expressway Co., Ltd./West Japan Expressway Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as NEXCO3 company) Polyethylene cylindrical tube (hereinafter referred to as PE sheath) used for prestressed concrete bridge construction Regarding the PE sheath material test prescribed by NEXCO3 company, NEXCO3 company conducted a test on the company selling and manufacturing PE sheath in response to information from the news agency that the PE sheath manufacturing and sales company manufactures test data After investigating the facts such as the situation, it was found that there was a falsification of the test data for Estee Engineering Co., Ltd. (Yao City, Osaka Prefecture).

Falsification of test data is very regrettable in ensuring quality.

The PE sheath is for securing a space (caliber: 4 to 11 cm) for installing a cable called PC steel in concrete, and is not a structural member of the bridge body.

However, in response to these facts, we inspected the in-service bridge using the PE sheath for which test data was fabricated and confirmed that there was no problem.

NEXCO3 company conducts witnesses during bridge construction and quality inspections after construction to confirm that the construction is being performed properly, and also conducts daily inspections and regular bridge details after service. Since the inspection is conducted, we do not think that it will affect the safety of the bridge.

NEXCO3 will promptly confirm that there are no similar problems with the test results of other PE sheath manufacturing and sales companies, and also about the method of inspection and quality confirmation of construction materials regarding the test method prescribed by NEXCO3. , We will consider it promptly and try to prevent recurrence.

The PE sheath material test (“Polyethylene sheath for inner cable JHS421” established in April 2004) is conducted by the manufacturing and sales company, and the test results are submitted through the construction contractor.

(1) We confirmed that Estee Engineering Co., Ltd. (Yao City, Osaka Prefecture) prepared and submitted the test results with fictitious data entered without conducting the test.

(2) We are currently investigating other companies as well, but one company contacted us saying that they did not conduct the test and created and submitted the test results based on the test data of other manufacturing companies. We are currently confirming the facts.

In the future, we will take measures based on the test results and study to prevent recurrence.

In addition, we continue to investigate other manufacturing and sales companies for similar facts.

The following table shows the bridges that use PE sheath of Estee Engineering Co., Ltd. after JHS421 was established in April 2004.